Import/export HS code 17: Sugars and Sweets

All types of sugars and sugar-based candies, including cane sugar, beet sugar, and flavored or colored sugars

Why this is important if you are looking for potential customers in the UK:

  • It helps you understand the market size for your product in the UK.
  • It provides you with a list of potential leads who have bought similar products.

* UK only, last 24 months analysed

Imports by country

What this shows: Import market volume by exporter country into the UK.

Top 5 values

Country £
Belgium 417,611,802
France 322,789,309
Germany 304,180,577
Netherlands 218,662,159
Brazil 217,159,087

Countries rank shift: first 12 months vs second 12 months

What this shows: Countries are on both sides of the Sankey. Left side is sorted by first 12-month volume, right side by second 12-month volume, so rank changes are visible from line crossings.

Top 10 values

Country First 12m £ Second 12m £ Delta £
Belgium 227,198,123 190,413,679 -36,784,444
France 196,221,194 126,568,115 -69,653,079
Germany 162,751,762 141,428,815 -21,322,947
Netherlands 123,900,267 94,761,892 -29,138,375
Brazil 122,001,997 95,157,090 -26,844,907
Czechia 91,361,164 71,872,718 -19,488,446
Turkey 88,193,819 66,437,480 -21,756,339
Spain 68,408,681 57,248,412 -11,160,269
China 70,970,302 53,475,176 -17,495,126
Ireland 60,772,074 48,988,239 -11,783,835

Imports by country of origin

What this shows: Import volume by production origin country. Differences from exporter-country data can indicate re-export routes.

Top 5 values

Origin £
Germany 337,587,648
Belgium 299,666,430
France 274,057,649
Brazil 217,809,998
Netherlands 197,429,095

Country of origin rank shift: first 12 months vs second 12 months

What this shows: Origin countries are on both sides of the Sankey. Left side is sorted by first 12-month import value, right side by second 12-month import value, so rank changes are visible from line crossings.

Top 10 values

Origin First 12m £ Second 12m £ Delta £
Germany 172,339,020 165,248,628 -7,090,392
Belgium 174,104,051 125,562,379 -48,541,672
France 167,745,105 106,312,544 -61,432,561
Brazil 122,442,430 95,367,568 -27,074,862
Netherlands 111,464,410 85,964,685 -25,499,725
Czechia 92,804,602 72,295,389 -20,509,213
Turkey 91,617,482 70,613,172 -21,004,310
China 79,503,790 59,295,647 -20,208,143
Spain 72,930,771 59,936,298 -12,994,473
Poland 65,974,334 49,873,463 -16,100,871

Importers across UK regions

What this shows: Number of importing companies by UK ITL2 region.

Top 5 values

UK region Companies
Outer London - West and North West 180
Inner London - West 116
Inner London - East 115
Outer London - East and North East 115
Greater Manchester 99

UK regions rank shift: first 12 months vs second 12 months

What this shows: UK regions are on both sides of the Sankey. Left side is sorted by first 12-month importer count, right side by second 12-month importer count, so rank changes are visible from line crossings.

Top 10 values

UK region First 12m Second 12m Delta
Outer London - West and North West 136 141 +5
Inner London - West 98 84 -14
Inner London - East 93 81 -12
Outer London - East and North East 86 91 +5
Greater Manchester 83 73 -10
Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire 67 58 -9
West Midlands 50 50 +0
Leicestershire, Rutland and Northamptonshire 56 49 -7
Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire 47 45 -2
West Yorkshire 49 44 -5

Import volume by transport

What this shows: Import value by transport mode used to bring goods into the UK.

Top 5 values

Transport £
Roll on Roll off (RORO) 1,535,116,155
Sea transport (not vehicle on ferry) 1,265,005,873
Other 141,698,596
Road transport 36,478,804
Air transport 15,906,416

Transport rank shift: first 12 months vs second 12 months

What this shows: Transport modes are on both sides of the Sankey. Left side is sorted by first 12-month import value, right side by second 12-month import value, so rank changes are visible from line crossings.

Top 10 values

Transport First 12m £ Second 12m £ Delta £
Roll on Roll off (RORO) 864,323,844 670,792,311 -193,531,533
Sea transport (not vehicle on ferry) 695,711,905 569,293,968 -126,417,937
Other 84,432,041 57,266,555 -27,165,486
Road transport 13,515,259 22,963,545 +9,448,286
Air transport 9,084,941 6,821,475 -2,263,466
Rail transport 597,153 381,940 -215,213

Import volume by port

What this shows: Import value handled by each UK port.

Top 5 values

Port £
London 514,679,202
Dover 501,078,232
Immingham Docks 341,395,870
Felixstowe 264,165,521
Eurotunnel 198,636,754

Port rank shift: first 12 months vs second 12 months

What this shows: Ports are on both sides of the Sankey. Left side is sorted by first 12-month import value, right side by second 12-month import value, so rank changes are visible from line crossings.

Top 10 values

Port First 12m £ Second 12m £ Delta £
London 294,139,251 220,539,951 -73,599,300
Dover 279,409,490 221,668,742 -57,740,748
Immingham Docks 174,990,008 166,405,862 -8,584,146
Felixstowe 160,403,396 103,762,125 -56,641,271
Eurotunnel 116,518,903 82,117,851 -34,401,052
Southampton 91,024,130 64,415,982 -26,608,148
000 84,412,285 56,787,606 -27,624,679
Dover / Eurotunnel 62,836,356 54,359,603 -8,476,753
Hull 71,090,194 44,710,227 -26,379,967
Liverpool Docks 55,360,380 45,683,301 -9,677,079

Importer companies by SIC division

What this shows: Industry breakdown (SIC divisions) of importing companies.

Top 5 values

SIC Companies
Wholesale trade, except of motor vehicles and motorcycles
822
Retail trade, except of motor vehicles and motorcycles
401
Manufacture of food products
266
Food and beverage service activities
134
Office administrative, office support and other business support activities
70

Importer companies over time

What this shows: Monthly count of unique importing companies.

Latest 5

Month Companies
2026-05 455
2026-04 461
2026-03 462
2026-02 476
2026-01 434

Top importers

What this shows: Companies with the highest number of months traded for this HS code.

Importer company size by revenue band

What this shows: Distribution of importers across company revenue bands.

Top 5 values

Revenue Companies
1m-15m 649
0-1m 413
54m+ 283
15m-54m 139
Other 107

Import seasonality

What this shows: Average monthly import pattern from historical data.

Exports by country

What this shows: Export market volume by destination country from the UK.

Top 5 values

Country £
Ireland 211,684,905
Netherlands 48,358,319
Germany 46,682,864
United States 43,900,367
Belgium 36,097,619

Export countries rank shift: first 12 months vs second 12 months

What this shows: Destination countries are on both sides of the Sankey. Left side is sorted by first 12-month export volume, right side by second 12-month export volume, so rank changes are visible from line crossings.

Top 10 values

Country First 12m £ Second 12m £ Delta £
Ireland 115,583,880 96,101,025 -19,482,855
Netherlands 28,442,207 19,916,112 -8,526,095
Germany 25,192,347 21,490,517 -3,701,830
United States 21,317,712 22,582,655 +1,264,943
Belgium 21,397,165 14,700,454 -6,696,711
Italy 19,654,428 10,382,499 -9,271,929
Norway 16,116,143 12,738,208 -3,377,935
Poland 12,287,747 11,531,536 -756,211
Spain 16,615,676 6,137,192 -10,478,484
Canada 10,566,194 11,351,650 +785,456

Exports by country of origin

What this shows: Export volume by production origin country. For re-exports, indicates where goods originated before UK export.

Top 5 values

Origin £
XI 14,065,864
Ireland 4,847,292
Guatemala 4,314,999
Germany 3,593,079
Nicaragua 3,278,509

Export origin countries rank shift: first 12 months vs second 12 months

What this shows: Origin countries are on both sides of the Sankey. Left side is sorted by first 12-month export value, right side by second 12-month export value, so rank changes are visible from line crossings.

Top 10 values

Origin First 12m £ Second 12m £ Delta £
XI 6,962,114 7,103,750 +141,636
Ireland 2,890,025 1,957,267 -932,758
Guatemala 2,072,414 2,242,585 +170,171
Germany 1,823,901 1,769,178 -54,723
Nicaragua 2,881,261 397,248 -2,484,013
Spain 1,654,586 1,075,980 -578,606
Fiji 0 1,781,539 +1,781,539
Indonesia 37,365 1,214,903 +1,177,538
Czechia 765,744 422,851 -342,893
Belgium 640,342 543,929 -96,413

Export volume by transport

What this shows: Export value by transport mode used to ship goods from the UK.

Top 5 values

Transport £
Roll on Roll off (RORO) 445,681,498
Sea transport (not vehicle on ferry) 227,273,950
Other 60,841,848
Air transport 11,721,754

Export transport rank shift: first 12 months vs second 12 months

What this shows: Transport modes are on both sides of the Sankey. Left side is sorted by first 12-month export value, right side by second 12-month export value, so rank changes are visible from line crossings.

Top 10 values

Transport First 12m £ Second 12m £ Delta £
Roll on Roll off (RORO) 256,316,429 189,365,069 -66,951,360
Sea transport (not vehicle on ferry) 119,356,400 107,917,550 -11,438,850
Other 32,614,645 28,227,203 -4,387,442
Air transport 6,011,539 5,710,215 -301,324

Export volume by port

What this shows: Export value handled by each UK port.

Top 5 values

Port £
Dover / Eurotunnel 163,950,814
Liverpool Docks 138,228,751
London Gateway Port 68,695,334
Immingham Docks 66,299,918
000 60,190,900

Export port rank shift: first 12 months vs second 12 months

What this shows: Ports are on both sides of the Sankey. Left side is sorted by first 12-month export value, right side by second 12-month export value, so rank changes are visible from line crossings.

Top 10 values

Port First 12m £ Second 12m £ Delta £
Dover / Eurotunnel 87,905,355 76,045,459 -11,859,896
Liverpool Docks 70,378,676 67,850,075 -2,528,601
London Gateway Port 35,271,688 33,423,646 -1,848,042
Immingham Docks 38,616,886 27,683,032 -10,933,854
000 32,594,758 27,596,142 -4,998,616
Holyhead 26,744,133 22,076,020 -4,668,113
London 28,406,261 16,429,992 -11,976,269
Felixstowe 26,772,184 13,071,750 -13,700,434
Southampton 13,604,142 8,433,325 -5,170,817
Thamesport 9,701,348 9,005,067 -696,281

Related HS codes

What this shows: Sibling or child HS codes in the same classification branch.

Quick facts

HS code: 17

Coverage: United Kingdom, most metrics for the last 24 months

Description: All types of sugars and sugar-based candies, including cane sugar, beet sugar, and flavored or colored sugars