Thanks to record beet yields, sugar production in Ukraine has remained almost unchanged

The sugar refining season in Ukraine ended on February 1, 2026. During the season, 26 factories of the Ukrtsukor association produced 1.64 million tons of sugar. Taking into account one more factory that is not part of the association, the total sugar production amounted to 1.72 million tons, latifundist.com reports.

Thus, despite the reduction in sugar beet sowing areas compared to the previous year by 23% or 50 thousand hectares, sugar production decreased by only 4% or 80 thousand tons. This is due to an increase in sugar beet yield to a record for the industry of 58 t/ha, a high level of sugar content (17.6%) and improved operational processes at processing plants, due to which the sugar yield increased compared to 2024 by 1% to 15.17%.

The leaders in sugar production in the 2025 season remained:

• Radekhiv sugar — 32%,
• Astarte — 21%,
• Ukrprominvest-Agro — 15%,
• Teofipil Sugar Plant — 6%,
• A'SPIK — 5%.

In the 2025/26 MY, the plants of Ukrprominvest-Agro processed 1.6 million tons of sugar beets, from which they obtained 226 thousand tons of sugar.

In the EU, 5 sugar factories closed in 2025, and in total, 17 processing plants have ceased operation there since 2017, the Committee of European Sugar Producers reported.
The trend of plant closures is a result of increasing production costs and increased competition from cheap imported sugar.