KYIV, Sept 26 – Ukraine’s eighth sugar beet test of 2000 showed an average sugar content of 14.7 percent compared with 16.0 percent in 1999, an agriculture ministry spokeswoman said on Tuesday.
Farms sowed a record low 880,000 hectares to sugar beet this year, down from last year’s 1.05 million hectares, and industry officials said the beet harvest may total 13.5 million tons, compared to 13.89 million tons in 1999.
A senior industry official said earlier this month that Ukraine, which used to produce over three million tons of white sugar in Soviet times, was likely to produce no more than 1.5 million tons this year, down from last year’s poor 1.64 million tons.
