“A few years ago, in 2022-2023, when we had free access to the EU market, the price of sugar there reached $800/t. Today in Poland, for example, it is about $400/t, which basically deprives exports there of any sense,” the head of Ukrsakhar, Yana Kavushevska, said in an interview with The Ukrainian Farmer.
“Very desirable” market
Nevertheless, according to her, despite all the costs and limited access, the European Union market is a very desirable market for Ukrainian sugar producers.
“We realize that the sugar industry in Europe is a very complex, but at the same time balanced and regulated system, for which predictability is of great importance,” admits Yana Kavushevska. – For example, today practically all contracts for the supply of sugar to processing companies for this year are already scheduled. Everyone understands how much sugar is produced, where it will go and in what timeframe.
Therefore, contracts for sugar beet for the next year are also concluded before the previous current sugar campaign is completed. So when in 2022 the Ukrainian product in large quantities suddenly entered the European market and broke the established schemes, it caused a strong reaction. And it took some time to stabilize the situation.
After all, after all, if we approach the issue with a cold head, our partnership is mutually beneficial. Ukraine produces sugar of European quality, can quickly and qualitatively deliver it to any point in Europe in batches of any size. Besides, this is beet sugar, which is familiar to European consumers”.
For Ukraine, the EU market is a premium and the most comfortable in terms of logistics, as “it does not need to attract ports”, emphasized Yana Kavushevska. She also noted that it was important for Ukraine to establish a dialogue, to demonstrate that “we have realized the mistakes made in sugar exports in 2022-2023, we understand the rules by which the European market operates, and we are ready to adhere to them in order to become a full-fledged participant”.
Sugar quotas for Ukraine – sweet, but small
An important step in this direction was the introduction of licensing and quota allocation for sugar exports to the EU in 2025.
“This has become a clear confirmation that we seek to avoid situations where Ukrainian sugar creates an imbalance in regional markets, negatively affects the price situation and harms European producers. And we are convinced that this was one of the arguments that allowed us to increase the quota volume for Ukrainian sugar according to the updated trade part of the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the EU.
Let me remind you that the volume of sugar quota increased from 20 thousand to 100 thousand tons of sugar per year. Yes, this is still significantly less than our potential, but hopefully, this is the first step, which will be followed by the next ones,” Yana Kavushevska summarized.
Remark by Logos Press: Before the renewal of the agreement, i.e. since the beginning of the war in 2022, the EU opened free access of Ukrainian agro-food products to the European market as a measure of support for Ukraine. As a consequence, Ukraine exported more than 300,000 tons of sugar to the EU market in the 2022-23 season.
