Infotag interviewee said that the gross harvest of the contracted sugar beet will make around 950 thousand tons, while usually the SM has been processing 500-550 thousand tons of beet. This is due to record yield of beet in 2014 - on average 56 tons/ha (normally around 35 tons). In most efficient households the yield of sugar beet even reaches 60-70 tons/ha.
To process the record harvest, the SM has started harvesting and processing of beet considerably earlier than planned.
“Sugar factory in Falesti has started the season on August 29, while in Drochia – on September 3, though normally plants start working not earlier than in mid-September”, said the company representative.
In order to exclude losses of beet, a graphic of beet supplies to factories has been developed together with beet producers. Agricultural households will receive additional payment not only for early, but also for the late harvest of beet, which will compensate the lost profits from the potential crop losses.
Sudzucker Moldova has five years ago moved to this European practice, which allows most efficiently harvesting and processing any volume of crop, because sugar beet is supplied according to a strict schedule and almost immediately goes to processing.
“Due to unfavorable weather, for several weeks it was impossible to harvest beet. The SM sugar factories were operating at full capacity, using the sugar beet reserve, accumulated on the plants. The bad weather has pushed back the harvest schedule, but the company and its partners are doing everything possible to accelerate sugar beet harvesting and processing”, said the company.
Given a higher yield in Northern raions [districts] of Moldova (Drochia sugar plant has usually been processing around 250-270 thousand tons per year, whereas in 2014 a harvest of 600 thousand tons is expected in this zone), the SM decided to transport at its own expense over 100 thousand tons of beet to Falesti factory, the fact that will extend the factory’s work by a month. It is assumed that the company’s direct losses due to transportation and furnace oil, the excise tax on which went up in 2014, will exceed 20 million lei.
Infotag’s dossier: The Sudzucker Moldova is forecasting 50 million lei losses from the sale of sugar, produced in this season. Due to a sharp decline in sugar price in Europe and in the region, as well as closure of Russian market, a certain part of 200 thousand tons of sugar, produced in 2014, remained unclaimed or will be sold at an unprofitable price. With all this, a certain decline in beet purchasing price, provided in contracts, does not allow the company to come out of the zone of losses. But due to a high yield, a good profitability is guaranteed for farms – up to 35-45%. For example, at an average beet yield of 56 tons/ha, the profit for households will be around 9.6 thousand lei per hectare (profitability rate - around 40%), while at 65 tons/ha – 15 thousand lei, which raises the profitability to 60-62%.
