OREANDA-NEWS. August 14, 2014. During the press conference the Chairman of the Union of sugar producers of Moldova, the speaker of the management Committee of the company Sudzucker-Moldova Alexandr Coss said that from September 1, Russia withdraws from the free trade regime with Moldova a number of goods, including sugar, thereby dramatically worsening the prospects for progressive development of the sugar industry in Moldova.

"Despite the entry into force of the law since September, our companies have already faced problems with export of sugar to Russia. Rospotrebnadzor has blocked 5.7 thousand tons of sugar under the pretext of improper labeling of bags. We are talking about the products worth \\$4 million (55 million lei), which we have to bring back," said Coss.

He stressed that this year the export potential of the industry could have made about 1 billion lei. "We planned to collect 1.2 million tons of beet and produce about 170 thousand tons of sugar (+19% compared to 2013), and 65 thousand tons of sugar were expected to export to the Russian market, and 37.4 thousand tons of sugar to European Union within the framework of provided quotas. But it is not enough to satisfy the potential manufacturers. We are forced to seek other markets," said Alexander Coss. According to him, the amount of domestic sugar market of Moldova has significantly reduced-up to 60-65 thousand tons vs. 80-85 thousand tons the previous years.

This was due to lower volume of home winemaking and conservation, reduction of industrial winemaking, including sweet fortified wines, as well as migration. In addition, the Moldovan market is periodically onslaught of smuggled sugar from neighboring Ukraine. Another internal factor is that the industry is under constant pressure from the "cane lobby", which promotes the idea of liberalization of the sugar market - uncontrolled sugar import from foreign markets and processing of cane raw sugar, which no doubt will lead to cancellation of duty-free export quotas for sugar in the EU. The board member of the Board of Sudzucker Moldova Octavian Armasu noted that the output of the Moldovan sugar producers to other CIS markets is also problematic.

"The average wholesale price of sugar in Moldova is USD 733 per 1 ton (10,1 lei /kg), in Ukraine - USD 761, in Romania - USD 695, in Russia - \\$768, in Belarus - USD 796, in Kazakhstan - USD 906. If the Russian market is closed for us, we will have to sell our products on the stock prices that do not reflect the real cost of production. For example, today, the trading price of sugar is USD 433 per ton, and in Russia we have been supplying sugar at the price of USD 687 per ton. The difference is USD 254 per ton. That is, if 65 thousand tons of sugar we sell at the stock exchange, the industry will lose about 625 million lei only on the difference, and another 231 million lei will be economic losses," said Armasu.