(Updates with record output forecast in second paragraph.)

Sept. 30 (Bloomberg) -- Russia plans to keep the minimum level of the sugar import duty at $140 a metric ton in May through July of 2012 on record beet crop, the Agriculture Ministry said today in an e-mailed statement.

The ministry estimates the beet harvest will reach 36 million tons this year and sugar output from domestic crops will climb to about 5 million tons. The country’s worst drought in at least half a century shriveled crops last year.

--Editor: Torrey Clark

To contact the reporter on this story: Marina Sysoyeva in Moscow at msysoyeva@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Claudia Carpenter at ccarpenter2@bloomberg.net