Sugar industry in Russia is saddled with surplus sugar. The country has produced so much sugar that it is struggling for storage space. The sugar output in Russia has doubled in the past decade, and production is expected to increase 20 per cent this season.
According to Russia’s sugar manufacturers union, mills are forced to store sugar in open space as their warehouses are already full. Some mills are storing it in independent warehouses, for which they are paying extra money.
Keeping sugar in the open air will also damage sugar’s quality. Andrey Bodin, the union’s chairman, said in an interview at an International Sugar Organisation, “We do not have storage and have kept sugar in the open air. We have to reprocess it as we don’t know how the buyer will respond to the produce.”
The Russian sugar sector has transformed from sugar importer to exporter. The nation continues to struggle to get buyers for sugar in the world market, and it has been exporting sugar for only about two years, mainly to former Soviet countries. According to the reports, in this season, sugar production is estimated at 7.2 million tonnes.
