Sugar Beet Area To Shrink by 26% yoy in 2008

Areas sowed with sugar beets will be reduced by 26% yoy to 480 ths this year, Vice Minister of Agriculture Ivan Demchak told Interfax. Olha Pankiv: This is 6% lower than our projections, and 20% below initial expectations voiced by the ministry. The news is positive for Ukraine’s traded sugar stocks including Astarta (AST), Dakor (DAKOR) and Ukrros (UROS), as lower supply of beets in the market will decrease overall sugar production in the country and trigger sugar price increase. We keep up with our expectation of 30% yoy growth in the average sugar price in Ukraine in 2008 to USD 528.