Uzbekistan is on track to become the single largest market for Ukrainian sugar exports, a shift driven by geopolitical disruption in the Persian Gulf that has upended traditional supply chains across Central Asia, Latifundist.com reported.
Yana Kavushevska, Chairman of the Board of Ukrtsukru, Ukraine’s national sugar association, said Uzbekistan had been among the three leading destinations for Ukrainian sugar since March and could rise to the top position by the end of April. Speaking to Latifundist.com, she described the development as atypical and attributed it primarily to the disruption of established logistics routes in the region.
Kavushevska said the crisis in the Persian Gulf had reduced sugar flows from the Middle East, particularly from the United Arab Emirates, into Central Asia. This created a market opening for Ukrainian suppliers. The route currently being used moves product through the Black Sea, then across Georgia, Azerbaijan, and the Caspian Sea to reach Uzbekistan. She noted that under present conditions, these complex and expensive logistics had become commercially viable and attractive.
However, she was careful to characterise the current demand as situational rather than structural. While the Uzbek market is not new for Ukraine and holds potential for restoring stable commercial flows, physical constraints are limiting the pace of exports. A shortage of transshipment capacity and railway wagons remains a key bottleneck, she said.
Ukraine is also maintaining supplies to traditional buyers in the Middle East, including Syria and Lebanon, even as the export geography evolves.
On overall export performance, Kavushevska said Ukraine had shipped approximately 426,000 tonnes of sugar so far in the current marketing year, which is around 12 per cent below the corresponding figure from the previous year. Despite this shortfall, she said total exports could reach 500,000 tonnes before the end of the marketing year in September.
On the domestic production side, the sugar beet sowing campaign has faced setbacks. More than 3,000 hectares of beet crops in the western and south-western regions of Ukraine were damaged by a dust storm and will need to be replanted. In addition, more than 15 per cent of planted crops are at risk from frost, with farmers estimating the affected area at around 4,000 hectares.
Total sugar beet sown area this season stands at 197.2 thousand hectares according to official figures. However, Ukrtsukru believes the effective sown area is closer to 160 thousand hectares, which would be the lowest on record since the association’s founding in 1997 and likely the smallest area planted since the late Soviet period. As of April 27, sowing had been completed across 162.8 thousand hectares, or 83 per cent of the planned total, with six regions having finished their campaigns entirely.
