February 3, 2024

Compared to last year, Ukrainian sugar production immediately increased by 500,000 tons.

In the 2023/24 season, Ukraine produced about 1.8 million tons of sugar, reports Latifundist with reference to Taras Vysotsky, First Deputy Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine.

This volume is the largest since 2018. Compared to last year, the volume of production increased by approximately 500,000 tons.

The main reason for the increase in production is that in 2023, the sugar beet acreage in Ukraine increased significantly, amounting to almost 250,000 hectares (184,000 hectares a year ago).

Domestic consumption of sugar in Ukraine is up to 1 million tons, so the country's total export potential for sugar exports in the current season is about 700,000 tons.

For comparison, in 2023, Ukrainian sugar exports amounted to 506,000 tons with a total value of $390 million. Almost the entire volume of exports was directed to EU countries.

In 2024, according to the commercial director of Astarta, Vyacheslav Chuk, the European Commission allowed Ukraine to export 320,000 tons of sugar to the countries of the bloc. Thus, in order to support exports, Ukrainian companies will have to look for new sugar sales markets (in 2017-18, Ukraine exported quite significant amounts of sugar to African and Asian countries).