In March, Egypt’s largest company, Nile Sugar, will launch a project in the Jizzakh region to grow sugar beets, process them, and produce sugar products. This was announced by Laziz Kudratov, Minister of Investment, Industry, and Trade of Uzbekistan, in an interview with the Uzbekistan 24 TV channel.
According to him, the project envisages the production of up to 200,000 tons of sugar per year. The total investment is estimated at $450 million and will be implemented in the form of foreign direct investment.
Minister of Agriculture Ibrohim Abdurakhmonov specified that the President had instructed to speed up the implementation of the project.
“Instructions have been given to take the project under separate control and start its implementation as soon as possible. All the necessary documents have been drawn up, land plots have been allocated, and investments are ready,” he said.
In 2024, the Ministry of Agriculture reported that 50,000 hectares of land had been selected in the Ghalaral and Farish districts of the region for growing sugar beets and 170 hectares for the construction of a sugar factory.
On January 23 this year, Laziz Kudratov met with Nile Sugar CEO Emad Farid. Following the negotiations, the parties signed a final protocol confirming their readiness to continue coordinated work on the preparation and implementation of joint projects. The document provides for the clarification of project parameters, financing conditions, and the agreement of further steps to expand practical cooperation.
It is expected that the implementation of the agreements reached will allow moving to the practical stage of cooperation with Nile Sugar, ensure the phased launch of joint projects, and attract modern agro-industrial and processing technologies with further localization of production in Uzbekistan.
Bioenergy projects are already operating at seven of Ukraine’s 27 sugar factories that were in operation during the 2025 season, according to Yana Kavushevska, head of the board of the National Association of Sugar Producers “Ukrtsukor,” in an interview with the agency “Interfax-Ukraine.”
“For obvious reasons, not all companies want to focus on this (bioenergy projects – IF-U) today. I can only note that out of 27 operating sugar factories, seven have implemented the production of bioethanol, biogas, or biomethane, and the industry has good potential in this area,” she said.
Kavushevska noted that Ukraine’s sugar industry has good examples of bioenergy projects. They were implemented mainly before 2022, and during the war they were refined and improved. For example, some enterprises switched from biogas to biomethane production.
As reported, biofuel production at sugar factories in Ukraine is a strategic direction, as it allows by-products (molasses and pulp) to be converted into energy. As of 2025–2026, the industry is actively transitioning from the production of simple biogas (for electricity) to biomethane (for export to the EU) and bioethanol.
According to Interfax-Ukraine, the most powerful bioenergy project in the sugar industry, with a capacity of 56 million cubic meters per year, has been implemented at the Teofipol sugar factory (Khmelnytskyi region). It is already connected directly to the gas transmission system (GTS).
The Globyne bioenergy complex of the Astarta agricultural holding (Poltava region), with a capacity of 50 million cubic meters per year, processes sugar beet pulp and uses biofuel to meet the needs of sugar and soybean processing plants.
The Gnidavsky Sugar Plant (Volyn region) produces biogas from pulp to meet its own energy needs and sells it. The plant’s capacity is 6 MW.
The Kapitanivsky Sugar Plant (Kirovograd region) has built a 6 MW biogas complex and has plans to switch to biomethane. The Sezhansky Sugar Plant (Cherkasy region) runs on pulp and molasses and produces biogas to generate 7.5 MW of electricity.
Bioethanol in Ukraine is mainly produced from molasses (syrup), which is a waste product of sugar production at the Gnidavsky Sugar Plant (15–20 thousand tons per year) and the Uzynsky Sugar Plant (10–15 thousand tons per year). In addition, the Haisyn Sugar Plant (Ukrprominvest-Agro) cooperates with the Haisyn Distillery to process its own molasses into bioethanol, while the Trostyanets and Zarubinsky distilleries are key hubs for processing raw materials from sugar plants in neighboring regions.
The industry also includes the Yuzhefo-Mykolaiv Biogas Complex (Vinnytsia region), which cooperates with the Yuzhefo-Mykolaiv Sugar Factory and produces over 11 million cubic meters of biomethane per year from sugar pulp and chicken manure. This is one of the first enterprises in Ukraine to establish the production and export of bio-LNG (liquefied biomethane).
The Zhdanivsky Sugar Factory of the Astarta agricultural holding (Vinnytsia region) provides the raw material base for energy generation. In total, Astarta produces over 50–60 million cubic meters of biogas per year.
As of January 1, 2026, 26 sugar factories that are members of the Ukrtsukor association processed 10.43 million tons of sugar beets and produced 1.574 million tons of sugar, the association’s press service reported on Telegram.
The industry association specified that sugar yield was 15.19% (+1.13% compared to last season) with beet sugar content of 17.63% (+0.88% compared to last year).
In January, six sugar factories will continue processing sugar beets. The sweet root processing season is expected to end by January 20, 2026, Ukrtsukor concluded.
The association reminded that sugar beet processing is also carried out by the Gorokhiv Sugar Factory, which is not a member of Ukrtsukor and does not provide the association with operational information.
As reported, 1.25 million tons of sugar were produced in Ukraine in the 2024-2025 marketing year, meaning that domestic sugar factories produced 25.9% more product this season than last year. The volume of the domestic market in Ukraine is currently estimated at 900,000 tons per year.
