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Due to weather conditions, the sugar beet sowing campaign is slowing down, while the situation is further complicated by frosts and storms. This year, Ukraine may set a negative record for sugar beet planted areas. This was reported by Yana Kavushevska, Chair of “Ukrtsukor”, in a comment to Latifundist.com.
“Unfortunately, the progress of the sugar beet sowing campaign this year leaves no room for optimism,” she said.
According to Kavushevska, the country is currently experiencing the third wave of frosts, meaning that the earliest sown beet crops have been affected the longest and most severely.
“It is still too early to make any forecasts — the picture will become clearer after the current frosts end. However, we already see more than 3,000 hectares of beet fields that have been ‘blown away’ by dust storms and now need to be resown in the western and south-western regions. In addition, an estimated more than 15% of crops are currently at risk due to frosts,” she noted.
She added that these are significant volumes, given that the total sugar beet area this year, according to Ukrtsukor, amounts to only 160,000 hectares. The association believes that not all farmers will be ready to resow sugar beet and will instead switch to other crops, meaning the final planted area is likely to decrease further.
“As a result, we will see a negative record — the smallest sugar beet planted area in Ukraine at least since the establishment of Ukrtsukor in 1997, and likely even earlier, as in the 1980s–1990s Ukraine sowed over 1.5 million hectares,” Kavushevska concluded.
According to the Ministry of Economy, Ukraine’s sugar beet planted area this year is expected to amount to 197,200 hectares.