Moldova this year will have the largest sugar beet yield ever both in terms of quantity (1.2 million tonnes) and in terms of output (45 tonnes per ha). According to Minister of Agriculture and Food Industry Vasile Bumacov, the bumper crop and the difficulties encountered in exporting sugar to Russia may lead to a decrease in sugar prices, IPN reports.
The minister said the sugar beet harvest this year is projected to total about 160,000 tonnes. The large crop brings yet disadvantages too. The internal necessities can be satisfied with 65,000 – 70,000 tonnes of sugar. The rest of the sugar will have to be exported. Though Russia didn’t impose a direct ban on sugar, it put an exaggerated tax that makes exports to it unprofitable. The sugar producers and the Ministry will have to identify new export markets.
Vasile Bumacov noted that it is important for the raw material to be processed in Moldova, not to be exported. “We are glad that we speak not about raw material only, but about a whole industry: from the fields to the finished product. We would like to have such a business in more areas, as in the wine industry: from grapes to the wine that we can export,” he stated.
The minister praised the foreign investors that come to Moldova and bring modern equipment and technology and know-how. The company with Polish capital “Moldova Zahar” took over the abandoned sugar plant in Cupcini, renovated it and reopened it in 2011.
The company’s director Wojciech Kolignan said that “Moldova Zahar” every year rented and purchased modern harvesting machines from Ukraine, Poland and Germany. Also, the company brought experts with considerable experience in the field from the UK and Germany. This year they have signed contracts with 100 sugar beet planters who cultivated sugar beet on an area of 8,000 hectares. The sugar beet is bought for 650 lei per tonne, which is higher than the price offered in Poland.
Wojciech Kolignan also said that even if the output of 45 tonnes per hectare is a record for Moldova, in Poland the average productivity is 80 tonnes per hectare and Moldova has yet to work to achieve a European production level.
Last year, sugar beet was cultivated on an area of 28,500 hectares. The production was 1.1 million tonnes, which is 39 tonnes per hectare on average.
