In 2011 Belarusian sugar plants are going to export at least 500,000 tonnes of white sugar, up 7,000 tonnes over 2010, BelTA learned from Valentin Komandirov, head of the office for co-coordinating the development of sugar and confectionery industries of the Belarusian state food industry concern Belgospischeprom.

In line with the interstate agreement, export to Russia will reach 200,000 tonnes, up 11,000 tonnes over 2010. Export to other countries will make up 300,000 tonnes.

Valentin Komandirov said that Belarusian sugar is in demand abroad. In 2010 sugar export went up 12% over 2009 to 493,000 tonnes. Russia imported 189,000 tonnes, 17% more than the agreement stipulated. Belarus exported more sugar to Russia to meet the growing demand for sugar on the Russian market, Valentin Komandirov explained.

Apart from that Belarusian sugar refineries exported 304,000 tonnes of sugar to other countries. Those are CIS countries, namely Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan. Export to Kazakhstan made up 63,000 tonnes (56,000 tonnes in 2009). In 2010 sugar was supplied to Georgia in small amounts. Belarusian sugar plants have reached into new markets, namely Afghanistan and Mongolia (5,600 tonnes and 1,200 tonnes respectively).

Sugar refineries of Belarus have finished processing sugar beet of the 2010 harvest, thus they may start processing cane raw sugar. There are plans to process 400,000 tonnes of raw sugar. The sugar refinery in Slutsk was the first one to start processing raw sugar. Other refineries will get down to processing raw sugar after Christmas.

To keep the equipment busy in winter, Belarusian sugar refineries process about 300,000 tonnes of cane raw sugar every year. This sugar is in demand in Central Asian countries, namely Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan. This year raw sugar is imported from Brazil.

Valentin Komandirov attributed the increase in raw sugar import in 2011 to the shortage of sugar beet harvest in 2010. Moreover, raw sugar has to be imported because Belarusian sugar refineries need to export white sugar in order to fulfill long-term contracts and keep their positions on foreign markets. Moreover, sugar refineries can go on working till the sugar beet processing season starts, providing adjacent towns with heating.

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