Ukraine Wants Sugar Exports to Russia Duty-free from 2012

Ukraine's Agriculture Ministry is holding talks with the customs union of Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan over setting up a duty-free quota from 2012 to annually export up to 100,000 tonnes of beetroot sugar to Russia, Ukraine's Agriculture Minister Nikolai Prisyazhnyuk said late on August 2, 2011.

Prisyazhnyuk said that the export quota is to be gradually increased to 500,000 tonnes of sugar in the coming years.

Ukrainian plants' total production capacity exceeds 3 million tonnes annually, allowing for the possible export of over 1 million tonnes of sugar annually, worth an estimated U.S. $1 billion, Prisyazhnyuk also said.

Prisyazhnyuk added that Ukrainian sugar plants are expected to increase their output by 30% on the year to 2 million tonnes in 2011.

The current Russia's duty for sugar imports from Ukraine amounts to U.S. $330 per tonne.