EU imports record sugar and poultry volumes from Mercosur in June 2026
EU agri-food imports from Mercosur reached €2.475 billion in June 2026, with record volumes of sugar and salted poultry meat. Preliminary Eurostat data also showed EU agri-food exports to the bloc rising year on year, although the trade flow remained heavily weighted toward Mercosur supplies.
EU imports rise to €2.475 billion
The European Union imported €2.475 billion of agri-food products from Mercosur countries in June 2026, according to preliminary Eurostat data reported by farmer.pl. The value was 6.9% higher than in May 2026 and 17.9% above June 2025. It also exceeded the average monthly level recorded across 2025 by 18.1%.
EU agri-food exports to Mercosur, covering CN chapters 01-24, were valued at €264 million in June. That represented increases of 12.1% from May and 9.3% from June 2025, but the figure remained 1.1% below the average monthly value for 2025. The June numbers therefore show growth in both directions, while the value of EU imports was more than nine times that of exports.
Sugar shipments set a monthly record
Sugar was the most prominent contributor to the increase. Mercosur countries supplied 269,000 tonnes to the EU in June, a record monthly volume and more than one-third of all sugar imported from the bloc during the whole of 2025, according to economist Łukasz Ambroziak, whose analysis was cited by farmer.pl.
The June volume was also substantially larger than Brazil’s 180,000-tonne World Trade Organization tariff-rate quota for sugar intended for refining. Under the EU-Mercosur agreement, the duty applying within that Brazilian quota was reduced to zero. The agreement also provides Paraguay with a duty-free quota of 10,000 tonnes of sugar for refining. The comparison does not establish how much of June’s trade entered under each arrangement, but it highlights the scale of the monthly flow relative to the preferential volumes.
Salted poultry flows concentrate in the Netherlands
Imports of salted or brined poultry meat under CN 02109939 also reached a record. The EU received 34,800 tonnes in product weight during June, mainly through the Netherlands. The shipment was close to half the volume imported in the whole of 2025. The meat originated in Brazil, which has a WTO quota of 124,500 tonnes in carcass-weight equivalent for EU imports at a preferential tariff of 15.4%.
Other poultry-meat imports were also above their recent monthly norm. Volumes reached 11,800 tonnes in June 2026, compared with an average of 8,000 tonnes per month in 2025. These figures increase the relevance of EU market monitoring for poultry processors, producers and traders, particularly where large monthly arrivals are concentrated in a small number of entry markets.
Seasonality limits early conclusions
Ambroziak cautioned that two months of data are insufficient for a reliable assessment of the effects of the EU-Mercosur agreement. Imports of many agricultural products are seasonal, and the length and timing of seasons can differ between years. June’s records should therefore be assessed against subsequent monthly volumes rather than treated alone as evidence of a lasting change.
He also identified safeguard readiness and compliance with EU requirements as central issues. If higher imports cause or threaten serious disruption in the EU market, authorities may need to activate the protective clauses provided by the agreement. Trade liberalisation, he argued, must not lower standards: products entering the EU market should continue to meet the applicable requirements.
