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RUSSIA
According to the Ministry of Agriculture, sugar beet was collected from the area of 650.3 thousand ha or 58.6% of the crop area by October 14, 2016. Bulk volume harvested makes 28.9 million tons with the average yield of 44.38 MT/ha. The wholesale price of sugar decreased by 5.6%, retail - by 0.9% in the period October 4 – 10, 2016.
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The Department of the Russian Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) for the Republic of Tatarstan has recognized the 34 sugar factories and the “Union of Russian Sugar Producers” (Soyuzrossakhar) to violate Clause 1 Part 1 Article 11 of the Law on Protection of Competition, which has resulted in the conclusion of the agreement between the institutions accused, that led to the setting and maintenance of wholesale prices sugar in Russian Federation. Violators will be issued a prescription, according to which they shall have to cease the agreement, the sugar producers shall transfer the amount of income received as a result of collusion to the budget, and the "Union of Sugar Producers of Russia" has to stop the coordination of economic activities.
Mr. Andrey Bodin, the Chairman of Soyuzrossakhar said the organization will arbitrate the decision of FAS. According to Soyuzrossakhar, the prices in a competitive market are driven solely by market conditions, and prices published by Soyuzrossahar are purely to provide information on transactions already committed by sugar market operators.
Comment by Sugar.Ru. FAS decision in Tatarstan contradicts the elementary logic. It is understood that the reference publication or statistical information on the market affects market expectations and therefore – prices. But with the same success the expectations and, accordingly, the prices are affected by the official Rosstat statistics on commodity manufacture, not to mention the forecasts by Weather Service. In this case, Soyuzrossahar act solely as of aggregator of random data, and its impact for market prices does not differ from the effect on the currency market of exchange rates monitored by RBC.ru or stock tickers at MICEX. Attempts of Tatarstan department of FAS to find signs of collusion in such activities are too far-fetched, and will lead only to unreasonable waste of time and money of a large number of market participants who are forced to participate in numerous hearings and trials rather than get busy with sugar production.
UKRAINE
More than one third of sugar in Ukraine will be produced in the Vinnitsa region, the press service of the regional administration has reported. "This year the total sugar beet acreage in Vinnitsa region has increased by 10%, which is almost 55 thousand hectares, the yields reach 50 MT from a hectare [...] this season we anticipate the total production of beet sugar to make around 420 thousand tons. This volume is more than one third of the total national sugar production in Ukraine".
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