Serbia sows 60,000 ha of sugar beet – Average earnings at around EUR 1,100 per hectare

Sugar beet has been sown on around 60,000 hectares in Serbia this year, of which 38,000 ha on the land belonging to the company Sunoko, a member of MK Group, and its subcontractors. As Ljubisa Radenkovic, the company's director, said for eKapija, the aim is to produce around 350,000 tons of sugar in 2017, which is 40,000 tons fewer than last year.

– Shifting weather conditions, including extremely high temperatures in late March, and then remarkably low temperatures, frost and snow in April, have caused a part of the sown areas to display a very uneven growth and density lower by 5-10% compared to last year – Radenkovic said.

As our interviewee added, these amounts (350,000 tons of sugar) will also be sufficient for Serbia's consumption of 200,000 tons, whereas the rest is to be exported.

– We are exporting to the surrounding countries, Romania, Bulgaria, Greece, Slovenia and the southeast European countries – Radenkovic said.

According to him, the conditions and the potential for the production of sugar beet in Serbia are good, although the state of the sugar market is not ideal.

– We've been recording a constant drop in the price of sugar since October 2016, but there have been worse periods. The profit from sugar beet must be sought in increased production – said the director of Sunoko.

As he explained, the changes in the world market, especially the reform in the EU market aiming to abolish production quotas beginning with October 2017, will increase the pressure on the market, and it can therefore not be expected for the prices of sugar to go up. An increase in profit and keeping sugar beet competitive can be achieved only by better yields per hectare, Radenkovic explained and added that, for this to take place, it is necessary to implement the latest findings and to honor the principles of good agricultural practice.

– There are producers in Serbia who have sugar yields of over 11 or 12 tons per hectare, but the average yield is around 9-10 tons, which is relatively low compared to western European producers, who produce around 15 tons. This means that there's huge potential for improving the production – Radenkovic added.

The company cooperates with around 1,000 subcontractors in Serbia. On average, according to Radenkovic, they earn around EUR 1,100 per hectare.

As he said, the average yield of sugar beet in Serbia is 60 tons per hectare, the current purchase price is EUR 35 per ton, and the average cost of production is EUR 1,000 per ton.

On Friday, June 2, Sunoko organized the traditional Sugar Beet Field Day on a parcel of the Agrounija farm near Indjija. On that occasion, the current state of the sugar beet market was presented, as well as new technology and the latest agricultural machinery used to the end of increasing sugar beet yields.

K.S.

Sunoko d.o.o. Novi Sad

MK Group d.o.o. Beograd

Agrounija doo Inđija

MK Group

Ljubisa Radenkovic

Sugar Beet Field Day

sugar beet

production of sugar beet

sugar

price of sugar

price of production of sugar

price of sugar beet

growing sugar beet