«In the current season, 13,5 million tonnes of sugar beet were harvested — almost 1 million tonnes less than last season. Despite the bad weather conditions, diseases and pests, producers were able to get the highest average yield — 49,4 t/ha. Such unexpected result was due to soil-climatic conditions and high amount of moisture in the soil», —  commented Vasyl Dolinsky, the analyst of the commodity markets and agriculture of «Ukrsugar» Association.

Considering the yields according to the geographical criterion, Lviv, Vinnytsia and Kyiv regions with the average beet yield of 55-60 t/ha became the most profitable this year. The worst indicators were obtained in Kharkiv and Kirovograd regions — 37 t/ha and 34,8 t/ha respectively. Many farms, mostly in Western and Central Ukraine, gained more than 80 tonnes per hectare in individual fields.

«Taking into account the significant reduction in harvested areas this year, beet lifting and harvesting works were delayed. On the one hand, low rainfall and relatively high temperatures allowed to harvest beet crops operatively, even from problem areas, where there were no asphalt roads. On the other hand, the refineries needed to harvest sugar beet slowly, as the vast majority of crop suffered from root rots and could not be stored in piles», — summed up Vasyl Dolinsky.

In addition, storage problems, weather and climatic conditions of the second half of summer caused an abnormally low sugar content of beet roots. This year in Ukraine the average sugar content reaches only 16,3%, which is 7% lower than in the last 3 years.