"Hungary's sugar beet planting area will fall by at least 10 percent and possibly more in 2006 from a year earlier due to overproduction in 2005 and pending EU regulation changes, the producer's association CIE said.Hungary has already used up around 45,000 tonnes of its 402,000-tonne 2006 refined sugar quota with sugar carried over from 2005, which alone warrants at least a 10 percent reduction in production, CIE's Gergely Kovacs said on Wednesday.
"But pending an EU ruling, which may come as early as Thursday, further restrictions may be imposed which could result in further reduction," Kovacs told Reuters.
"They may impose an EU-wide temporary quota reduction but it's unclear how this will be done," he added.
Hungary produced 491,000 tonnes of refined sugar in 2005, down from 499,000 tonnes a year earlier. The total sugar beet crop was around 3.5 million tonnes, broadly unchanged from a year earlier. Sugar beet was harvested on around 58,500 hectares in 2005."
Source: Reuters
02.02.2006