In 2025, Ukraine failed to export agricultural products worth €2 billion due to changes in trade rules with the European Union, with 95% of the shortfall related specifically to the EU market, ProAgro Group reports.
According to Oleksandra Avramenko, Head of the European Integration Committee of the Ukrainian Agribusiness Club (UCAB), speaking at the conference “Doing Agribusiness in Ukraine,” 2025 was marked by multiple formats of trade cooperation between Ukraine and the EU. For the first time, Ukraine operated under three different trade frameworks with the EU.
The first framework was the Autonomous Trade Measures (ATMs), unilateral preferences introduced by the EU to support Ukraine, which were in effect until June 2025. The second was a transitional period following the expiration of the ATMs, lasting five months. The third framework came into force on October 29, 2025.
“Destabilization and the lack of predictability in trade with the EU resulted in Ukraine under-exporting agricultural products worth €2 billion as of December 1, 2025, with 95% of this shortfall related to exports to the European Union. In other words, the products that were not exported to the EU were not redirected to other markets either. This is quite critical under the current circumstances,” Avramenko noted.
She emphasized that having a new trade regime is significantly better than having none at all.
The expert expressed hope that during 2025 Ukrainian exporters would gain experience in supplying products to the European market under the new rules, allowing them to better understand the new trade mechanism in 2026.
Avramenko also reminded that under the updated trade agreement the EU introduced the Cyber Measures mechanism, which allows any country that feels pressure from Ukrainian agricultural imports to appeal to the European Commission. The Commission may then conduct an investigation and, if necessary, impose restrictions on imports from Ukraine.
As previously reported, in the current season Ukraine redirected most of its sugar exports from the EU to Middle Eastern countries.
Source: Open4Business
