The European Union (EU) confirmed on March 28, 2025 that farm imports emanating from Ukraine will reduce from June 2025.

Christophe Hansen, the EU’s agriculture commissioner, told AFP of significant agricultural import cuts when Ukraine renegotiates an expiring free trade deal.

This is in reference to a temporary free trade deal drafted in 2022 at the dawn of war with Russia.

A few weeks beforehand, Andrei Dikun of the Ukrainian Agri Council had volunteered to cut EU-bound exports to 20%.

This news comes at a high time when the eastern European country is in the final laps of joining the European Union.

As an oncoming EU member, Ukraine had met 100% of continental policies by early March 2025, according to Foreign Minister Andrii Sibha.

Agriculture policies however remain a tightrope walk and may have motivated Dikun’s green light on reducing exports.

Case Study Sugar

One sensitive import is Ukraine’s sugar, which the European Commission apparently intends to decrease significantly. 

Reports say that an influx of imports from Kyiv have drastically slashed sugar prices in Europe, and hence the volume cuts.

Sugar was among several agricultural goods from Ukraine that the bloc had granted entry for free in 2022.

Farmers’ protests in Poland and Hungary however gradually forced the union to toe the line and protect local interests.  Following the protests, caps on Ukraine’s sugar, poultry, eggs and maize came into force in April 2024. The caps trimmed an estimated 240 million Euro ($259.8 million) in total import value. 

By how much the European Union will slash farm imports from Ukraine remains unspecific but could be significant. 

For now, however, the EU remains Ukraine’s biggest single trading partner in farm exports. To learn more on how far the economic bloc relies on Ukraine’s agricultural commodities, read on the statistics section, next. 

Statistics on EU’s Farm Imports from Ukraine

Before 2022, the European Union commanded 40% of the total exports by Ukraine, including agri-food. There was a trade imbalance however, for in 2019, the EU dispatched just 1.1% of its total worldwide exports to Kyiv. 

By 2020, 35.7% of the 40% of EU’s imports from Ukraine were agricultural products, worth 5.8 billion euro ($6.3 billion). In 2023, the import value of agri-food commodities more than doubled from the above to $12.5 billion (11.5 billion Euro). 

Is Ukraine the biggest source of EU-bound agricultural products? 

While it is Ukraine’s number 1 destination, the European Union nevertheless imports only a small portion of its agricultural goods from there. For instance in 2020, agri-food imports from Ukraine represented 4.6% of the EU’s agricultural imports. 

Are there agricultural products from Ukraine that lead EU’s imports?  

According to the European Parliament, Ukraine supplies 50% of all EU vegetable oil imports while cereals enjoy a near-similar share. The country is also the source of around 1/4 of all poultry meat orders by the EU.