Ukraine tops the ranking of barley suppliers to the EU for the first time
6.11.2026 - 10:47
The increase in the share was a result of the reorientation of flows from sea routes to land.
This is evidenced by data from the European Commission, writes APK-Inform.
For the first 17 weeks of the season, from July 1 to October 25, Ukraine supplied the EU with 69.83 thousand tons of barley – 3.7 times more than last year, when the figure was 18.96 thousand tons.
Ukraine’s share in the European barley market increased from 10.18% to 30.9%, which allowed it to lead the ranking of suppliers for the first time. Moldova with 65.85 thousand tons (29.14%) and the United Kingdom with 58.22 thousand tons (25.77%) – last year’s leader with a share of 57.17% – remained behind.
Total barley imports to the EU during this period increased by 21.3%, to 225.96 thousand tons compared to 186.23 thousand last year. At the same time, it is almost twice as low as in the 2024/25 season, when it reached 462.51 thousand tons.
The primacy on the European market contrasts with the overall picture of Ukrainian exports. Since the beginning of the season, barley supplies from Ukraine have fallen by 56.4%, and all grain exports have decreased by 32.1%.
Recall that last year, the main buyers of Ukrainian barley were China (487 thousand tons), Turkey (297 thousand) and Libya (230 thousand) – destinations served by deep-water ports. After the actual blockade of sea exports, the flows switched to land routes, that is, to the EU.
The scale remains modest. The current 69.83 thousand tons constitute about 4.6% of the 1.52 million tons that Ukraine exported for the entire last season. The European barley market is unable to replace the lost destinations.
The European Union itself is also experiencing a decline in this market. In the first weeks of the season, its barley exports decreased by 51% – primarily due to the collapse of demand from China, which reduced purchases of European grain by 10.5 times.
As USM reported the day before, Egypt and Algeria provided almost half of Ukrainian wheat exports in October.
