Serbia belongs to countries whose economic structure of agriculture has a high importance (the share of agriculture in the total population is 10.9%, the share in GDP from about 10%, and if you include food industry about 17%, while the share of exports is about 20%). In addition to major natural resources, Serbia has significant food industry capacities as well. In the field crop production structure of Serbia, besides cereals, the share of industrial crops predominates: sugar beet, sunflower and soybean. Sugar beet-growing areas amount to about 65 thousand hectares, and they produce about 3 million tons of sugar beet, whereas   sugar plant capacities produce about 400 thousand tons of sugar. Since the 2000-ths, sugar became one of the most important export product of Serbia (primarily due to EU countries export and Autonomous Trade Measures-ATM). The study focused on some major economic characteristics of the sugar production sector in Serbia during the period 2000-2008, displaying the basic indicators of the importance of this sector in the economic development of Serbia, i.e. the share of GDP, employment and total exports. Economic efficiency of sugar beet production on family farms of Serbia and its competitiveness in relation to some other important field crops was analyzed as well. The main data source was a publication of the Republic Institute for Statistics. The analysis of the economic efficiency of sugar beet production was based on gross margin calculations using elements sampled in a survey. The survey was conducted on 50 selected family farms involved in field crop production only.

sugar beet; sugar; macroeconomic indicators; gross margins; family farms

Presentation: oral