Judging by the rush demand for sugar, which arose in late May and early June, it may suffer the same fate as salt. Analysts told whether there will be a shortage of sugar in Ukraine this year, and how this deficit is economically justified.
Following salt, the demand for another bulk product, sugar, has sharply increased. Ukrainians are sweeping it off store shelves, despite rising price tags and government assurances that there is plenty of sugar in the country.
Analysts from UAK (Ukrainian Agrarian Club) told how things really are with this product in Ukraine, and what can lead to a shortage of sugar in the country.
It must be said that sugar has been one of the irritants on the Ukrainian food market for several years. The annual demand of Ukrainians for this product is 1.2 million tons. However, in the 2020-2021 season, only 1 million tons were produced in Ukraine. This, of course, led to a shortage of sugar and its purchases abroad.
However, by the next year, the farmers improved, increased the sown area under this crop, and as a result, sugar production this year increased to 1.4 million tons. And if we consider that millions of our citizens were forced to go abroad because of the war, it turns out that there can be no sugar shortage in 2022.
“The produced sugar is enough to cover Ukraine’s annual demand for sugar calmly and even with a margin. And given the fact that part of the population of Ukraine has temporarily gone abroad, the consumption fund has also decreased and, accordingly, the transitional balance is increasing,” the analysts noted from UAC.
But there is no shortage, and sugar disappears from the shelves. And sweep it away at any cost.
Analysts explain this by the fact that Ukrainians succumbed to the general hype because of the salt. But if salt began to disappear for an objective reason, then there are no such grounds for sugar.
Excessive demand for this product can be explained by two reasons:
• the canning season has begun, which this year is also catalyzed by uncertainty in the food market;
• Because of the war and gloomy forecasts, Ukrainians are trying to stock up on long-term storage products, and sugar is just one of them.
Therefore, it is not surprising that it has become in high demand, and a shortage of sugar, even artificial, is quite likely. But after the war, Ukrainians will use what they have in store for another year, and sugar in stores can be bought at a ridiculous price.
Recall, meanwhile, supermarket chains announced a two-fold reduction in prices for salt in June.
