DUBAI, Feb 12 (Reuters) - Russian farming conglomerate
Rusagro said on Wednesday the cost of exporting
Russian sugar remained high due to lack of investments in port
logistics.
"Industry and other players are not investing in the
logistics in ports mainly, so to export sugar we have to use the
same logistics the country is using for wheat and other grains,
and in this case it is a situation where demand for export is
growing but supply for service is the same," Rusagro Sugar's CEO
Nikolay Zhirnov told an industry conference in Dubai.
Russia's sugar output is expected to reach a record high of
7 million tonnes in 2019, the country's agriculture ministry
said in October.
On Wednesday, Zhirnov put output for the 2019 season in the
same range.
Total exports would range around 1.1 million tonnes, mostly
to the CIS region.
This year is the fourth year Russia has a production surplus
in sugar. Zhirnov said the higher crop was helped by
increasingly warm weather.
"It is very warm weather this year in Russia, for example
this year was only new year without snow in the last ten years."
(Reporting by Maha El Dahan and Nafisa Eltahir, editing by
Louise Heavens)