The Ministry of Agriculture is predicting this year a gross sugar beet output of 800,000 tonnes, as compared last year’s 650,000 tonnes.

This year sugar beet has been cultivated on an overall area of 20,000 hectares, which translates to a yield of 40 tonnes per hectare. Vasile Sarban, department head at the Ministry, told IPN the harvest will be enough to produce 117,000 tonnes of sugar. Almost 85,000 tonnes will be for domestic consumption and the remainder will be exported.

As of 1 January 2018, the reserve was of 117,000 tonnes.

The State Weather Service forecasts an average sugar beet output of 30-33 tonnes per hectare, with the last decade’s average being 31 t/ha.