MINSK: Belarus harvested nearly 5.3 million tonnes of sugar beet in 2023, surpassing the target of 5 million tonnes, marking a significant milestone in the nation’s sugar industry, according to Chairman of the Belarusian state food industry concern Belgospishcheprom, Oleg Zhidkov, reported Bleta.By
In an interview with the Economy of Belarus magazine, Zhidkov highlighted that this figure represents the highest yield ever recorded in Belarus’ sugar industry history.
“After processing the raw materials, we obtained 670,000 tonnes of sugar, marking a 15-17% increase compared to 2022. The production volume varied across different sugar refineries. This sugar output will serve as our primary export commodity this year. International commodity prices are experiencing an upward trend. While our main market remains the Eurasian Economic Union, where pricing mechanisms differ slightly and there is significant competition from domestic producers in Russia, the current market conditions present favourable opportunities for our sugar refineries to achieve healthy profit margins,” Zhidkov explained.
Looking ahead to 2024, Zhidkov stated that Belarus’ domestic sugar market will be supplied with 1.5 times the amount needed, indicating that the industry has achieved a level of self-sufficiency exceeding domestic demand by half. Zhidkov highlighted that all available resources have been utilised to achieve this outcome. He also noted that future production increases will rely primarily on modernisation and more extensive processing of raw materials, which could potentially boost output by an additional 1.5-2%.
