Agricultural Ministry to subsidize sugar beet farmers at UAH 1,000/ha

Ukraine’s Agricultural Ministry plans to offer sugar beet farmers a subsidy of UAH 1,000/ha for up to 250 ha of sugar beets, according to a draft resolution published on the Cabinet of Ministers’ website yesterday. Ruslan Patlavskyy: We see a slim possibility of domestic sugar beet growers getting their hands on the said subsidies in 2010 as Ukraine’s budget last year also provisioned a direct subsidy of UAH 750/ha planted with sugar beets, which was never paid out. In our view, the ~50% yoy growth in area sowed with beets to 488 ths ha implies sufficient sugar production to cover domestic consumption over 2010/11E, which might be used as another argument to skip the payments. Thus, we believe the news will have a neutral impact on listed sugar producers.