The main goals of the present work are the influence of drying characteristics on red beetroot, effective moisture diffusivity determination and the activation energy. The drying characteristics of red beetroot were investigated theoretically and experimentally by convection drying at different air temperatures, ranging 50 – 80ºC and relative humidity 30,6 – 53,8%. Red beetroot samples were dried from moisture content of 88,84±0,35% until 9.88±0.5%. The results have shown that, increasing the drying air temperature causes shorter drying times from 450 min to 240 min. Moisture transfer from red beetroot samples was described by applying the Fick’s diffusion model. The effective diffusivity coefficient of moisture transfer varied from 1,471x10-8 to ,.8145 x10-8 m2/s in first stage and 6,0094 x10-8 to 1,19x10-7m2/s in second stage of drying process, over the temperature range analised. The temperature dependence of the diffusivity coefficients was described by Arrhenius type relationship and was found to be 22,33 kJ/mol in first stage and 19,85kJ/mol in second stage of drying process.  The research aimed to establish the kinetics of the drying process of red beetroot, in order to investigate the optimal drying parameters for this vegetable.