Vinnytsia region has significantly reduced sugar beet harvested areas. While last year sugar beet was harvested from 55 thousand hectares, this spring the sugar beet areas decreased to 44.8 thousand hectares.
“Sugar beet area was planned at 48.3 thousand hectares, but it was sown only on 92%”, said the deputy director of the regional department of agro-industrial development, ecology and natural resources Valentyna Kiriliuk. “There is no price for sugar, so there is a reduction. Although experts predict the improvement of the price situation, but farmers sow corn and other crops that are already in demand, instead of sugar beet”.
Compared to last year, from non-sown almost 10 thousand hectares the region could receive 62-65 thousand tons of sugar, on the condition that the average beet yield amounts to 500 hundredweights per ha. Last year, the local sugar refineries produced 424 thousand tons of sugar. (Ukrsugar/Business World Magazine)