EU Tensions Over Ukraine Crop Imports Spread to Sugar Market
A crane loads sugar beets in a field for transport to a nearby processing plant in northern France.
Photographer: Rudy Ruitenberg/Bloomberg
This article is for subscribers only.
French sugar-beet growers are demanding that rising sugar imports from Ukraine be re-exported outside Europe to avoid hurting local producers.
Ukrainian sugar imports to the bloc could reach 700,000-800,000 tons in the 2023-2024 season, growers’ group CGB said at a press conference Tuesday. That would be about double the previous season’s imports and well above the 21,500-ton average for the five years prior to that, European Commission data show. Ukraine has previously said it would cap sugar exports at 650,000 tons to all destinations this season.