All season 2017/18, every month updated records of inventory for this time of year. So, factory stocks at the end of April-2018 amounted to 1.487 million tonnes compared with 1.197 million tons a year earlier.

Among the reasons for the high factory stocks in Russia:

- record production of sugar in Russia, which continued into April-2018 (50 thousand tons mainly from molasses and syrup) at the completion of processing of the beet to the beginning of April;
- significant expansion of capacities of factory storage of sugar in Russia and the decline of the practice of seasonal storage in the regions in recent years;
- slow pace of shipments of sugar from factories in February to April 2018;
high for recent years, but insufficient for balancing the domestic market, the pace of sugar exports from Russia in the current season.

Seasonal intensification of the demand in the regions and the continued export of sugar and products from it, the probable delay in the commencement of harvesting and processing beet-2018 (sowing was delayed by 1-3 weeks), can provide a normalization of the domestic stocks of sugar by the end of the 2017/18 season, In any case, before the sugar industry and government faces the challenge of comprehensive development of exports from Russia in all markets and all types of transport, especially marine!