Ukraine expects record sugar production figures: forecast
Ukraine produced 1.615 million tons of sugar by January 10 in 2025/26, with output expected to exceed 1.7 million tons. Sugar beets yielded 11.4 million tons. Lower domestic demand supports export plans of at least 700,000 tons this marketing year, as factories continue processing beets across multiple regions nationwide operations.
Sugar production in Ukraine in the 2025-2026 marketing year as of January 10 reached 1.615 million tons, but the sugar beet processing season is not over. This was reported by the head of the board of the National Sugar Producers Association “Ukrtsukor” Yana Kavushevska in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
“According to our expectations, sugar production in the 2025/26 MY will exceed 1.7 million tons,” Kavushevska noted.
She clarified that in 2025, sugar beets in Ukraine were grown on 199 thousand hectares, with a yield of 58 tons per hectare, resulting in 11.4 million tons being harvested. For processing at the 27 sugar factories belonging to the “Ukrtsukor” group and operating in the 2025/26 MY, 10.8 million tons were delivered, but beet deliveries are still ongoing.
The expert reminded that before the full-scale war, domestic sugar consumption in Ukraine was 1.2-1.3 million tons, and currently it is 300-400 thousand tons less. Therefore, Ukraine aims to export at least 700 thousand tons of sugar in the current marketing year. The geography of Ukrainian sugar exports in 2026 is likely to remain unchanged.
As of January 2026, 23-26 sugar factories are operating in Ukraine. Since the beginning of the season, they have already processed over 10.4 million tons of sugar beets. The record average yield of sugar beets in 2025 was recorded in Chernivtsi region (78 tons per hectare), followed by Ternopil and Lviv regions.
In the calendar year 2025, Ukraine exported around 463.7 thousand tons of sugar worth $222 million. Deliveries to the EU in 2025 decreased by almost 60% due to the introduction of restrictive quotas. Bulgaria became the main buyer among EU countries. For the full marketing year ending in August 2025, 580 thousand tons of sugar were exported (32% of the total production volume).
The top five sugar producers in the 2025/26 season include leading agroholdings, among which companies of the “Astarta” group, “Radekhivsky Sugar” and other major players in the industry traditionally hold high positions.
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Source : Agro News UA
