Sugar production in Ukraine in the 2025-2026 marketing year has already reached 1.615 million tons, but the sugar season is not over yet, said Yana Kavushevska, head of the board of the National Association of Sugar Producers Ukrtsukor, in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
“According to our expectations, sugar production in 2025-2026 MY will exceed 1.7 million tons. As of January 10, the factories that are members of the association have produced 1.615 million tons,” she said.
Kavushevska specified that in 2025, sugar beets were grown on 199,000 hectares in Ukraine, with a yield of 58 tons/hectare, and 11.4 million tons were harvested. The 27 sugar factories that are members of Ukrtsukor and operated in the 2025/26 marketing year received 10.8 million tons for processing, but beet deliveries are still ongoing.
Kavushevska noted that the industry association had expected a smaller sugar beet harvest and a smaller volume of sugar produced, but good weather conditions helped farmers achieve higher yields than last year. She recalled that last year, 250,000 hectares were sown with sugar beets, the yield was 55 tons/hectare, and 29 sugar factories produced 1.812 million tons of sugar.
Ukrtsukor specified that domestic sugar consumption in Ukraine before the full-scale war, even after the loss of Crimea and parts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions, amounted to 1.2-1.3 million tons, and is currently 300-400 thousand tons less. Therefore, it is desirable for Ukraine to export at least 700,000 tons in the current marketing year.
According to Kavushevska, the geography of Ukrainian sugar exports in 2026 is unlikely to change—it will be countries with convenient logistics, the cost of which allows Ukraine to be competitive compared to other global producers.
“In 2025, Ukraine exported 464,000 tons of sugar, 27% of which went to the European Union, and the rest was supplied to the world market (…) to countries in the Middle East and the Balkans. The undisputed leader in the purchase of Ukrainian sugar in 2025 is Lebanon (71,000 tons), while a year earlier it was Turkey with a similar volume. In second place is a European Union country – Bulgaria (66,000 tons), third is North Macedonia (39,000 tons), fourth is Libya (34,000 tons), and fifth is shared by Syria and Turkey (over 27,000 tons each),” said the chair of the board of Ukrtsukor.
According to Interfax-Ukraine, an informed source in the market reported that in the 2025 season, 3,000 hectares of sugar beets remained unharvested in Ukrainian fields, mainly in the Vinnytsia and Khmelnytsky regions. Due to rain during the harvesting period, farmers did not risk bringing their equipment into the fields for fear that it would get stuck. According to experts, it is quite possible that these sugar beets will be able to overwinter in the fields under the snow and will likely be suitable for processing. Assuming maximum losses (13% yield) after the snow melts, sugar factories will hypothetically be able to produce approximately 22,600 tons of sugar.
As reported, in Ukraine in 2024/25 MY, sugar production amounted to 1.812 million tons, which is 6.2% more than in the current year.
