According to Kazakh Agriculture Minister Yerbol Karashukeyev, Kazakhstan’s sugar imports will fall by 32% to increase the home-produced sugar supplies at the domestic markets from 7% to 43%.
He also told the Government meeting that annual sugar consumption in Kazakhstan stands at 532,000 tons. Irrigation water scarcity, sugar-beets labor-intensive growing methods, sugar-mills worn-out state, price dumping by Russian producers helped to fabricate 7% out of this amount in Kazakhstan.
The minister also added that an increase of sugar-beet gross yield is expected from 332,000 tons to 1.8 mln tons. Solving the problem of water supplies, an extension of cultivated areas from 14,500 ha to 38,000 ha, technical equipment, as well as launching the projects for updating and construction of a sugar mill with the infrastructure development of the industry will help to attain this result.
The target is to increase sugar production sevenfold up to 254,000 tons, and to reduce sugar imports by 32%.
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