According to the latest information from the Ministry of Agriculture, provided by the company "Agroinvestor" and the agricultural market research institution "IKAR," the total area sown with sugar beets this year amounted to 1186.2 thousand hectares, which is 17.4 thousand hectares, or 1.5% more than the previous year. The increase in acreage mainly occurred in the South and the Center - there they grew by 1.4% and 5.2% respectively, while in the Volga region and Altai they decreased by 12.9% and 2.8%.
However, not all farmers from the South and the Center increased sugar beet plantings. The farm "Progress" from the Krasnodar Krai reduced sowings by 30% compared to 2024. "Nevertheless, thanks to increased productivity, we expect to harvest at the level of last year this season," shared the chairman of the company's supervisory board, Alexander Nezhenets. Currently, the plantings at the enterprise look better than last year, the manager assesses their condition as excellent, despite the fact that due to early spring, the planting was carried out in mid-March - two weeks earlier than usual, and frost in early April damaged some sowings, so they had to be replanted. The mild weather in June has had a positive effect on the growth of sugar beets. "Naturally, the final harvest will depend on the weather in the coming months," the manager adds.
The group of companies "Agrotech-Garant," cultivating sugar beets in the Belgorod and Voronezh regions, also reduced plantings by 800 hectares compared to last year. The total planting area in the company in 2025 was 12 thousand hectares. The president of the enterprise, Sergey Orobin, notes that this year, a significant part of the sowings had to be replanted due to frost - almost 90% in the Belgorod region and about 10% in the Voronezh region. "Nevertheless, the projected harvest will be good - approximately 60 tons per hectare on average across our enterprises," the manager predicts. "At the moment, the plantings look great thanks to an sufficient amount of precipitation during the vegetation period both in the Voronezh and Belgorod regions."
The leading specialist at IKAR, Evgeny Ivanov, emphasizes that an increase in sugar beet production compared to the previous season does not guarantee an increase in sugar volumes. "In addition, the quality characteristics of the root crop play a key role, affecting the sugar yield per hectare: sugar content, molasses-forming substances, losses during harvesting, storage, and processing, and other factors," he notes. This year, according to the expert, the sugar yield per hectare will be at the level of last year or even higher. The overall condition of the plantings is assessed as good: frosts and replantings in April-May did not have as significant an impact as expected. "Undoubtedly, frosts damaged some plantings in certain areas, replanting was necessary in some places, however, the situation has now stabilized due to the absence of abnormal drought in the sugar beet growing regions. In some regions, there is a lack of moisture, but it is not critical as of now," the expert explains.
With favorable weather development - sunny days followed by rains, our enterprises in the current season 2025/26 may produce no less than 6.3-6.4 million tons of sugar, Ivanov predicts. The sugar production volume in the 2024/25 season is estimated at 6.3 million tons.
