Kazakhstan plans to raise its production of sugar beets to an annual 960,000 metric tons from 200,000 metric tons by 2020 to help shrink the dependence on imported sugar.
The increase will be achieved by increasing the land under cultivation as well as making production more efficient, Ayna Kusainova, a spokeswoman for the Agriculture Ministry, said in the capital Astana on Wed. Kazakhstan currently depends on imports for about 90 percent of its sugar, according to her, Bloomberg reports.
