Russian sugar-beet crop exceeds last year’s harvest

Russian farmers have harvested 2.7 million metric tonnes of sugar beet this year as of September 6, more than a two-fold increase from a year earlier, while yields are also higher, the national Sugar Producers’ Union said. Farmers in southern and central Russia have harvested sugar beet from 82,900 hectares (204,850 acres), or 8 per cent of the planted areas, the union said on its website yesterday, citing Agriculture Ministry data. Beet yields are 32.2 tonnes a hectare, or 670 kilograms a hectare more than last year, it said. Sugar refineries produced 275,200 tonnes of sugar from beets, compared with 125,700 tonnes a year earlier, according to the union.