Agrarian Ministry expects sugar production to exceed 2 mln mt in 2010

Ukrainian Agriculture Minister Nikolai Prysyazhnyuk said yesterday at a press conference that sugar production should exceed 2 mln mt in 2010, Interfax reported.  Prysyazhnyuk said Ukraine planted 477 ths ha with sugar beets, about 150 ths ha more than in 2009. He expects Ukraine to export 500 ths mt of sugar next year. Ruslan Patlavskyy: Our calculations suggest total domestic sugar production of 1.73 mln mt ( +36% yoy) or 13% below the Minister’s estimates (should the 2010 average beet yield remain flat yoy at 29 mt/ha). Nevertheless, we estimate that the 2010/11 sugar output in Ukraine should be sufficient to fully meet domestic consumption. This should help stabilize the domestic sugar price around USD 700-800/mt (or ca. -20% yoy) in 2H10, which might have an adverse effect on the top lines of major publicly quoted domestic sugar producers – Astarta (WSE: AST PW), Ukrros (UX: UROS UK) and Dakor (UX: DAKOR UK) in 2010.