Kazakhstan expects record sugar beet harvest this year - Ministry of AgricultureThis year’s sugar beet harvest in Kazakhstan is expected to reach a record 1.1 million tonnes, the press service of the Ministry of Agriculture said in a Friday press release."The government guarantees that all sugar beet harvested in Kazakhstan will be processed at local factories," the press release says.To this end, the daily processing capacity of the Merken sugar factory was expanded from 4,500 to 5,900-6,000 tonnes through installation of additional piling stations. All in all, the Merken factory will be able to process 450,000 tonnes of sugar beet this year.Sugar beet farmers that are located more than 100 km away from the sugar processing factories, will be paid 3 tenge per kg of sugar beet as compensation for transportation costs.There are four sugar factories in Kazakhstan: in the cities of Merke and Taraz in the Zhambyl region, and in the cities of Aksu and Koksu in the Almaty region, their total processing capacity being 8,700 tonnes of sugar beet and 2,400 tonnes of raw cane a day.The government recently reviewed a project for construction of a new sugar factory in the Zhambyl region, with a processing capacity of 1 million tonnes of sugar beet.According to the Ministry of Agriculture, all four sugar factories need modernization.In 2024, the area under sugar beet in Kazakhstan nearly doubled to reach 25,200 hectares compared with 13,400 hectares in the previous year. In 2023, the republic harvested 509,000 tonnes of sugar beet.Domestic consumption of sugar in 2023 amounted to 507,000 tonnes. To fully meet the demand for sugar, Kazakhstan has to import sugar from the states participating in the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) and to also process raw cane. (ICE ALMATY)

Fonte notizia: INTERFAX