Retrospective Analysis of Sugar Production in Post-Soviet Countries

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

The sugar industry in a number of republics of former members of the USSR ceased to exist, and in some it significantly reduced the volume of sugar production. One of the reasons for development problems is the high level of competition among world industry leaders. An analysis of international statistics since 1961 shows that Brazil accounts for about 20% of world sugar production, followed by India, the European Union, China and Thailand. At the same time, in the period from 1961 to 1991, the USSR provided from 5.8 to 16.4% of the world volume. Currently, the share of the largest producers of the post-Soviet space in global sugar production - Russia and Belarus - is less than 4%. The degradation of the sugar industry in the countries of former members of the USSR is caused, first of all, by a decrease in the size of the area occupied by sugar beets. If in 1992 the total area of the countries was 3.1 million hectares, then after 30 years this figure decreased to 1.5 million hectares (by 51%). Thus, in post-Soviet countries, the raw material base of the sugar industry has been largely lost; processors are forced to switch to a full supply of imported raw materials, or to completely curtail production. The volume of sugar production in Ukraine is decreasing from 3647 thousand tons in 1992 to 1416 thousand tons in 2021, and in Russia there is a progressive increase (2538 thousand tons in 1992 and 5902 thousand tons in 2021) . By 2022, the Republic of Belarus will increase its share in the post-Soviet space to almost 7%. Further development may be facilitated by a decrease in sugar production in the European Union, an increase in global demand for sugar, as well as the growing interest of biofuel producers in sugar cane, which frees up space in the world market for production based on sugar beets.