From August 2022 to July 2023, sugar exports from Russia may increase by 6% compared to last year, reaching a figure of 330 to 340 thousand tons, said Evgeny Ivanov, a leading expert at the Institute for Agricultural Market Studies (IKAR).
At present, sugar export from Russia is about 30,000 tons per month. The main importing countries of Russian sugar are Kazakhstan and the countries of the Asian territory of the former USSR, and earlier there were deliveries to Belarus, Moldova, Afghanistan, Iran, Mongolia, North Korea.
However, the increase in exports is limited by logistical difficulties, including the high cost of maritime container exports and the insufficient capacity of ports in the South and the Baltic.
This season, sugar production in Russia is expected to exceed domestic demand by 3.3%, reaching 6.1 million tons, which will allow the surplus to be exported.
It is important to note that since the 2016/17 season, Russia has switched to overproduction of sugar, producing more than it consumes. At the same time, a small amount of sugar continues to be imported, mainly from Belarus.
In the 2022/23 season, sugar production, including the processing of syrup and molasses, is expected to increase by 10.4% and amount to 6.20 million tons, which exceeds the previous season's figure of 5.61 million tons.
