Agriculture Ministry expects 65 sugar plants to operate this season

According to Ivan Demchak, Ukraine’s deputy minister of agriculture, 65 sugar mills will operate during the 2008/2009 season, compared to 108 last year. Olha Pankiv: The reduction in the number of sugar mills in operation is related to a 38% decline in land area planted with sugar beets this year. We expect Dakor (DAKOR: BUY) and Astarta (AST PW: BUY), which increased their land for sugar beet harvesting and are close to self-sufficiency in this key input this year to increase their market shares.