BAKU, Azerbaijan, February 9. Sugar beet was sown areas will amount to 25,000 hectares by 2024, Kanat Zhauymbaiev, Head of the Department of Processing of Agro-Food Markets of the Ministry of Agriculture, said, Trend reports, citing Kazakh media.
Increasing the sugar beet acreage will enable the country to fulfill domestic demand and decrease the need for sugar imports.
Currently, Kazakhstan produces only around 10 percent of the sugar beet necessary to satisfy domestic requirements.
“Only 40 percent of sugar is locally produced. We import 60 percent of sugar, mostly from Russia and Belarus. The problems that arose last year with the supply of sugar from Russia, including the ban on the export of sugar, exposed all the problems of food security in terms of sugar,” Zhauymbaiev added.
The Ministry of Agriculture official noted that the Kazakh government adopted a comprehensive plan for the development of the sugar industry, which consists of 33 points.
Sugar beet was sown areas have significantly decreased in Kazakhstan during the last few years. Around 15,200 hectares were available for sugar beet cultivation in 2020. In 2022, the area available for these purposes decreased to around 9,000 hectares.
