Eurostat, the EU's statistics agency, released data on March 1 indicating that exports from the EU to Ukraine reached pre-war levels in December 2022, marking the first instance of such recovery since the trade disruptions resulting from Russia's full-scale invasion.
Imports and exports between the European Union and Ukraine experienced significant declines of 40% and 50%, respectively, during the months of February and March 2022.
In December 2022, the percentage of EU exports to Ukraine increased to 1.5%, compared to 1.2% in February 2022.
However, Ukraine's contribution to the EU's non-domestic imports was 1.0% in December 2022, compared to the 1.1% recorded in February of the same year.
Eurostat notes that Ukraine's contribution to non-EU imports of iron and steel also fell by 6.3% in the past year.
This can be attributed to Ukraine losing access to its largest steel producer, Metinvest, since April 2022 due to its location in Russian-occupied Mariupol. Lack of access has resulted in Ukraine losing 30-40% of its metallurgical production capacity, according to Reuters.
The Eurostat report states the primary goods traded between Ukraine and the EU are sunflower oil, maize, and rape or colza seeds.
Ukraine's contribution to Europe's imports of sunflower oil dropped from 87.5% to 79.8% in the past year. Maize imports from Ukraine fell to 47.5% last year, compared to 50.7% in 2021.
