Turkmen farmers started the harvesting of sugar beet. Maryşeker Open Joint Stock Company, the country's only sugar beet processing plant, expects to receive more than 224,000 tons of the crop this year, the country's official media reports.
This year, farmers have cultivated sugar beet on a total of 14,900 hectares of land in ten etraps of Mary velayat. The largest part of the area allotted for the beets – 5,000 hectares – belongs is in the Karakum etrap of the velayat. Farmers of the Tagtabazar etrap, who are new to the cultivation of this crop, have planted the beet on 200 hectares of land.
A total of 3,000 hectares of land in Serdar, Bereket, Esenguly, Etrek and Magtymguly etraps of Turkmenistan’s western velayat of Balkan have been allocated for the cultivation of the sugar beet.
This year, sugar beets have been planted as a rotational crop after the winter wheat harvest.
The construction of another sugar beet processing plant is underway in Balkan velayat. It’s commissioning is expected to allow expansion of the areas for growing beets and reduction of the cost of sugar and confectionery.
