Key figures

The European Union is made up of 25 countries and has 495 million inhabitants. The figures that follow relate to the 2006-2007 sugar crop. They are expressed in millions of tonnes of raw sugar.

- With 18.1 million tonnes (15.2%), the EU is the third-largest producer of sugar worldwide behind Brazil (32.5 million) and India (30.7 million).

- With 18 million tonnes, the EU is the  second-largest user of sugar worldwide behind India (21.2 million).

- With 2.2 million tonnes, the EU is the fourth-largest exporter of sugar worldwide behind Brazil (21.5 million), Australia (3.6 million) and Thailand 4.6 million).

- The EU’s sugar and beet sugar yields are among the highest in the world. In 2006/2007, the sugar beet yield reached 54.3 t/ha and the yield in white sugar 8.6 t/ha.

- The EU produces 8 million tonnes of co-products (4.7 million of dehydrated pulp, 3.3 million of treacle) and 27.8 million hl of alcohol, which is increasingly used as a fuel (bioethanol).