Ukraine produces 1.4 mln mt (+24% y-o-y) of sugar as of November 23

As of November 23, Ukrainian sugar refineries processed 12.2 mln mt of sugar beets and produced 1.4 mln mt of beet sugar, up 24.2% to the last year’s result, Interfax reported yesterday. Out of 73 refineries, launched this year, 42 have already finished refining process. Ukrsugar association of refineries expect domestic sugar production to total 1.6 mln mt (+26% y-o-y) this year. Ruslan Patlavskyy: Based on that, the average sugar yield decreased by 0.8 pp to 11.5% in 2010, which coupled with the latest beets harvest update (14.5 mln mt (+47% y-o-y) as of November 15) suggest a potential 1.66 mln mt (+31% y-o-y) domestic sugar production for the year. Together with an estimated 0.28 mln mt of sugar, made from imported sugar cane, domestic supply is set to total 1.94 mln mt for 2010. This should be sufficient to cover domestic consumption, averaging at 1.8-2.0 mln mt p.a. and is likely to have a negative impact on local sugar prices, slashing top lines of domestic sugar producers in 2011.