Belarus Is the Key Market for Ukrainian Chocolate

Ukraine has reduced export of chocolate by one third, in monetary terms it makes up almost 50%.

Kyiv newspaper Segodnya reports, with reference to UCAB.

In January-October 2015 Ukraine exported 53.3 thous. tons of chocolate, that was 34% less than that numbers of last year. In monetary terms export fell by 49% - from $243 to $124 million.

"The main reason for this decline was the almost complete cessation of exports to the Russian Federation, which was the main market for Ukrainian chocolate products," experts say.

Within 10 months this year only 4 tons of chocolate were exported to Russia that is less than 1% in the export structure of the product. For comparison, in 2014 Russia made up 30% in all export of Ukrainian chocolate, and in 2013 - 58%.

Now the main external markets for chocolate are Kazakhstan, Belarus and Azerbaijan.

It should be reminded that earlier, the European Union (EU) has blocked the export of Ukrainian confectionery products containing nuts, since Ukrainian producers are unable to obtain the necessary certificates.

Roshen Corporation, owned by President Petro Poroshenko, faced Russia's export ban in 2013, that summer Russia banned deliveries, which affected the financial state of the confectionary company.