OREANDA-NEWS. November 09, 2009. ASTARTA's regional subsidiaries harvested more than 1 million 100 thousand tons of sugar beet (net weight) on the area of 28 thousand ha (83% of total beet planted area). The average gross yield is higher than 44 tons per ha (some Group's regional subsidiaries in Poltava regions harvested the sugar beet with an average yield of 50 tons per ha), while the Ukrainian average is about 30 tons per ha.

The sugar plants are fully provided with raw materials and continue the production season in accordance with a schedule. As of November 2, the sugar plants processed more than 900 thousand tons of sugar beet and produced 134 thousand tons of high quality sugar, that is more than 16% of total sugar production in Ukraine. The average sugar yield at ASTARTA's sugar plants is 14,9% (Ukrainian average is 13,7%). The average consumption of natural gas at ASTARTA' sugar plants for processing of one ton of sugar is 35 cubic meters.

The same date of the previous year ASTARTA processed about 800 thousand tons of sugar beet and produced 110 thousand tons of sugar with average sugar yield at 13,4% and gas consumption at 44 cubic meters for processing of one ton of sugar beet.