Currently, in the Krasnodar region, active beet harvesting is taking place as reported by the news portal Vesti Kuban. Agricultural enterprises will have to gather the harvest from an area of over 220 thousand hectares. Due to the hot weather and lack of precipitation, it is particularly important to speed up this process to reduce possible losses.
Specialized combines equipped with autopilot systems can harvest up to 18 tons of beets in one pass, taking about 15 minutes. The yield in the Ust-Labinsky district is approximately 450 centners per hectare, which is 20 centners less than the previous year. Despite the crop suffering from dry weather, the sugar content remains high.
Eight out of fourteen regional enterprises have already started processing the harvested beets and, at the moment, have obtained around 30 thousand tons of sugar. Farmers hope to harvest a crop that will not be inferior to last year's, when over 11 million tons of beets were harvested, resulting in nearly 1.5 million tons of sugar.
The Krasnodar region remains the leader in sugar production in Russia. The main areas where beets are grown include Leningradsky, Uspensky, and Tbilissky. Harvesting will continue until the beginning of November.