By KYIV. Jan 29 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Reports from the Ukrainian agricultural sector about record sugar beet harvests and sugar production are causing fear and panic among European farmers, they expect that Ukrainian sugar supplies to Europe in 2024 will not exceed last year’s figures of 426,000 tonnes, writes farmer.pl.
Polish farmers demand that quotas for Ukrainian sugar supplies to the European Union be introduced as soon as possible.
“I hope that trade issues with Ukraine will be resolved during bilateral negotiations as soon as possible. According to our estimates, in 2024, Ukraine’s export potential in trade with the EU will be 1 million tonnes. This is an amount that is already incredibly destroying our market,” said office director of the National Association of Sugar Beet Producers Rafal Strachota (Poland) in an interview with Wirtualna Polska.
He fears that due to the import of sugar from Ukraine, Polish sugar factories will limit production, as a result of which farmers will lose out, as they will have to reduce beet plantings.
“Limits must be set on the import of sugar. Only this will allow us to plan the activities of the industry, that is, contracts with farmers and prices,” Strachota added.
According to the report, the gross harvest of sugar beets in Ukraine in 2023 amounted to approximately 11.8-12 million tonnes and was the largest since 2018. Sugar production alone will amount to 1.6 million tonnes. In total, Ukraine can export approximately 600,000-650,000 tonnes of sugar in the new season.
Specialized agricultural media in Poland recall that sugar exports from Ukraine for the period October 2022-September 2023 were one of the best in the country’s history. Due to the war, trade was exempt from customs duties and quotas. Ukrainian exports to the EU increased 20 times – to 462,000 tonnes.
These data cause great concern in the European Union. Farmers are demanding restrictions on trade with Ukraine. Before the start of a full-scale war in Ukraine, the country exported goods to the European Union in accordance with the rules of the Association Agreement.
Currently, according to EU regulations, unilateral additional liberalization of imports of products from Ukraine has been introduced (these are the so-called autonomous trade measures – ATM), which expires on June 5, the publication writes.
