Kazakhstan is going to temporarily ban exports of sugar

Kazakhstan is going to ban exports of white and cane sugar for six months, according to the order of the country’s Ministry of Agriculture.

«We plan to impose a six-month-long embargo on white and cane sugar exports from the territory of the Republic of Kazakhstan. The Ministry of Agriculture should inform the Eurasian Economic Commission about the embargo in the appropriate manner,» the ministry said in a statement.

Among those agencies which are going to implement the order is the State Inspection Committee in the Agroindustrial Complex under the Ministry of Agriculture and the State Revenues Committee. The order must enter into force on May 23, ten days after its official publication.

Experts believe that the sugar embargo might cause little or no effect on sugar prices in Kazakhstan as the country has never been a big exporter of sugar. For example, Kazakhstan exported just 27,000 tons of sugar last year.

In large part, sugar prices in the country soar because of the poor harvest of sugar beet in 2020 and high prices for cane sugar in the international market.