Top 10 Sugar Producing Countries in the World in 2025: A Comprehensive Analysis
The global sugar market is unusually concentrated: a handful of producers shape price dynamics, trade flows, and the sugar–ethanol balance. For a practical “2025 snapshot” we use USDA marketing-year estimates for MY 2024/25 expressed in raw value. One important nuance: in USDA tables the EU-27 is reported as a single market entity (region), so it appears in the Top 10 alongside sovereign countries.
Key takeaways
Brazil and India remain the structural anchors of global supply, but for different reasons:
- Brazil is the export engine (very high share of global exports) and is tightly linked to ethanol economics.
- India is demand-led: domestic consumption and policy decisions often determine whether the world sees extra supply.
- EU-27 and Russia are beet-centric; their variability is tied to beet area, yields, and weather.
- Thailand and Australia are export-oriented cane systems, sensitive to drought cycles and yields.
Note: “Top 10 share” is calculated against USDA global total for MY 2024/25.
Table 1. Top 10 sugar producers (MY 2024/25, raw value)
Production values are shown in million metric tons (rounded). “Primary crop” is the dominant source of sugar in each market. Shares are approximate.
| Rank | Country / Region | Production (million tons) |
Share of world (approx.) |
Primary crop | Market role (plain English) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Brazil | 43.7 | 24.1% | Sugarcane | Largest producer and the dominant exporter; sugar–ethanol split drives volatility |
| 2 | India | 28.0 | 15.5% | Sugarcane | Large domestic consumer; policy (ethanol, exports) can tighten or loosen global balance |
| 3 | European Union (EU-27) | 16.4 | 9.0% | Sugar beet | Major beet producer; area/yield shifts affect import needs and export availability |
| 4 | China | 11.2 | 6.2% | Cane + beet | Large producer but structurally import-dependent due to scale of demand |
| 5 | Thailand | 10.0 | 5.5% | Sugarcane | Key exporter in Asia; drought recovery cycles can shift export volumes sharply |
| 6 | United States | 8.5 | 4.7% | Beet + cane | Large and highly regulated market; imports still important to balance demand |
| 7 | Russia | 6.5 | 3.6% | Sugar beet | Beet specialist; output variability is tied to beet yields and harvested area |
| 8 | Pakistan | 5.9 | 3.2% | Sugarcane | Large domestic market; production swings influence regional trade needs |
| 9 | Mexico | 5.1 | 2.8% | Sugarcane | Cane producer with strong linkage to North American trade flows |
| 10 | Australia | 3.9 | 2.1% | Sugarcane | Export-oriented supplier into Asian markets; yields and logistics matter |
EU-27 is shown as a region because it is reported as a single entity in USDA sugar market balances. If you need a “strict countries only” version, the EU line can be replaced with top EU member states (beet-heavy producers), but that changes the comparability of totals across sources.
Country notes: what drives output in each top producer
- Brazil: the world’s main swing supplier because mills can shift cane between sugar and ethanol depending on margins and mandates.
- India: sensitive to monsoon patterns and policy choices (ethanol blending priorities, stock rules, export permissions).
- EU-27: beet area decisions and yields (weather, agronomy) drive output; trade position changes with harvest results.
- China: mix of cane and beet; imports tend to fill the gap when demand runs ahead of domestic output.
- Thailand: export supply rises/falls with cane yields and drought cycles; recovery phases can rapidly lift shipments.
- United States: stable industrial base (beet + cane), but market balance is strongly shaped by quotas and import programs.
- Russia: beet yields are the key lever; strong years can generate exportable surplus, weak years tighten the domestic balance.
- Pakistan: local cane availability and mill operations are pivotal; production variability often affects regional trade.
- Mexico: cane system with close trade ties to the U.S.; domestic policy and weather affect export volumes.
- Australia: highly export-driven; logistics and weather conditions matter for realized output and shipment timing.
Production vs exports: why the leaderboard is not the whole story
A country can be a top producer and still be a net importer (China), while another can export a huge share of its output (Brazil). The charts below show (1) the Top 10 production volumes and (2) the export concentration for the same marketing year. If charts cannot load, the tables directly below them remain visible as a full fallback.
Top 10 producers by output (MY 2024/25)
| Country / Region | Production (million tons) |
|---|---|
| Brazil | 43.7 |
| India | 28.0 |
| EU-27 | 16.4 |
| China | 11.2 |
| Thailand | 10.0 |
| United States | 8.5 |
| Russia | 6.5 |
| Pakistan | 5.9 |
| Mexico | 5.1 |
| Australia | 3.9 |
Unit: million metric tons (raw value), MY 2024/25. Bars are scaled to the largest producer (Brazil).
Export concentration among major suppliers (MY 2024/25)
Exports are far more concentrated than production. In MY 2024/25, Brazil alone accounts for roughly half of total world exports in USDA data, making freight, weather, and the sugar–ethanol mix in Brazil disproportionately important for global prices.
| Exporter | Exports (million tons) | Share of world exports (approx.) |
|---|---|---|
| Brazil | 34.9 | ≈ 55.0% |
| Thailand | 5.9 | ≈ 9.2% |
| Australia | 2.6 | ≈ 4.1% |
| India | 2.6 | ≈ 4.1% |
| EU-27 | 2.0 | ≈ 3.2% |
| Guatemala | 1.6 | ≈ 2.5% |
| Mexico | 1.1 | ≈ 1.7% |
Exports are shown in million metric tons (raw value), MY 2024/25. World exports total ≈ 63.4M tons in USDA tables for the same year.
What the 2025 sugar leaderboard tells us about the market
Sugar is a “policy-and-weather” commodity: a large share of supply depends on rainfall patterns, planting decisions, and how governments manage domestic prices, ethanol blending, and export permissions. That is why the same Top 10 list often produces very different price outcomes in different years.
Insights and conclusions
1) Production is concentrated, but exports are even more concentrated.
- Top 10 producers deliver ~77% of world output, yet Brazil alone can represent ~half of world exports in a given year.
- Export concentration makes freight, weather in key regions, and the sugar–ethanol margin unusually influential.
2) Cane vs beet creates two different risk profiles.
- Cane systems (Brazil, India, Thailand, Mexico, Australia) are sensitive to drought and (for Brazil) to ethanol economics.
- Beet systems (EU-27, Russia) are sensitive to beet area decisions, agronomy, and late-season weather impacts on yields.
3) “Big producer” does not equal “big supplier to the world”.
- China is a major producer, but imports remain structurally important because demand is large.
- India’s exports can change sharply due to domestic balance and policy decisions.
For readers, the practical takeaway is simple: to understand where sugar prices can go next, watch Brazilian cane allocation (sugar vs ethanol), India’s policy stance, and weather-driven yield risk in Thailand and major beet regions.
Methodology (data year, sources, processing, limitations)
- Indicator: centrifugal sugar production (raw value), marketing year (MY).
- Year used for “2025 snapshot”: MY 2024/25 (seasonal year, not calendar year).
- Primary source: USDA FAS “Sugar: World Markets and Trade” tables for production and trade.
- Unit: 1,000 metric tons in source tables; converted here to million metric tons and rounded.
- Ranking rule: sorted by production (highest to lowest) for MY 2024/25.
- Important limitation: EU-27 is a region reported as one market entity in USDA sugar balances; it is included to keep apples-to-apples comparability with the global total.
- Interpretation rule: this is a market-balance dataset (commodity accounting). It is not a farm-gate “production value” estimate and may differ from other statistical systems or calendar-year series.
What this means for readers
If you work with food manufacturing, beverages, retail, or bioenergy, this ranking is best used as a risk map. Concentration means shocks in a small set of geographies can move the global balance quickly. For policy observers, it highlights why decisions in a few capitals (ethanol blending rules, export permissions, domestic price support) can shift trade flows and price spreads more than incremental changes in smaller producers.
For sustainability discussions, the Top 10 list also explains why mitigation strategies often focus on a few supply chains: cane landscapes (land use, water, and labor conditions) and beet systems (soil health, input intensity, and yield stability).
FAQ
What does “MY 2024/25” mean, and why is it used for a “2025” ranking?
What is “raw value”, and why can it differ from refined sugar statistics?
Why is the EU-27 included if the article is about “countries”?
Why can a top producer still import sugar?
What are the biggest swing factors for global prices?
Primary data sources and technical notes
The figures and rankings used in this StatRanker article are compiled from openly available international datasets. Values are rounded for readability and should be treated as analytical market-balance estimates.
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USDA Foreign Agricultural Service — Sugar: World Markets and Trade (Dec 2025)Production and trade tables by marketing year (raw value), used for the Top 10 ranking and export chart.
https://apps.fas.usda.gov/psdonline/circulars/sugar.pdf -
USDA FAS — Production: Sugar (commodity page)High-level market shares and production totals for MY 2024/25, useful for cross-checking.
https://www.fas.usda.gov/data/production/commodity/0612000 -
OECD-FAO Agricultural Outlook — Sugar (2025–2034)Long-run context on trade concentration and exporter roles (Brazil/Thailand/India).
https://www.oecd.org/.../sugar_a824c3c3.html -
FAO / UNData — Sugar (raw equivalent)Alternative statistical system for historical country series (calendar-year oriented).
https://data.un.org/Data.aspx?d=FAO&f=itemCode%3A2542&q=Sugar
If you need a “strict countries only” Top 10 without regional entities, use the same USDA tables but split EU-27 into member states using a consistent statistical source and clearly state that totals will no longer be directly comparable.
Download data & charts (ZIP)
One archive with clean tables (CSV/XLSX) and ready-to-use chart images (PNG) for the article about Top 10 sugar producers in the 2025 snapshot (MY 2024/25).
What’s inside the archive
README.txt— краткое описание и примечания к даннымtables/top10_sugar_production_MY2024-25_rawvalue.csv— Top 10 production tabletables/major_sugar_exports_MY2024-25_rawvalue.csv— major exports tabletables/sugar_MY2024-25_tables.xlsx— Excel (2 sheets: Top10_Production, Major_Exports)charts/top10_sugar_production_MY2024-25.png— production chart imagecharts/major_sugar_exports_MY2024-25.png— exports chart image
