Ukraine to formally halt sugar exports to EU as 2024 quota filled

KYIV (Reuters) - Ukraine's government will formally ban exports of sugar to the European Union for the remainder of this year as its EU quota has been filled, the acting farm minister said on Thursday.

Taras Vysotskiy said sugar volumes exported to Europe had reached a limit established under new "trade benefits" regulations. Ukraine is Europe’s second-largest sugar supplier.

"Other markets will be without limits, but the EU market will be opened only from January 1 and then it will become clear what export volumes there will be," Vysotskiy told an agricultural conference.

EU curbs announced in April followed extensive protests from farmers in the region, who said they faced unfair competition from producers outside the bloc such as Ukraine who do not face the environment-related regulations and bureaucracy they do.

Analysts said this month that Ukrainian sugar exports had reached 262,600 metric tons, the volume defined under EU rules as Ukraine's quota for 2024.

Ukrainian producers exported about 493,000 tons of sugar to the EU in calendar 2023.

Producers expect Ukraine to increase white sugar production by nearly 3% to 1.85 million metric tons in 2024 with an exportable surplus that could total 950,000 tons in the 2024/25 season.

(Reporting by Pavel Polityuk, writing by Olena Harmash; editing by Jason Neely)