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 460,043,033
France 362,639,256
Germany 331,563,550
Netherlands 240,588,237
Brazil 230,960,051

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 237,665,620 222,377,413 -15,288,207
France 203,253,901 159,385,355 -43,868,546
Germany 157,646,657 173,916,893 +16,270,236
Netherlands 122,404,760 118,183,477 -4,221,283
Brazil 108,400,764 122,559,287 +14,158,523
Czechia 89,891,924 87,017,094 -2,874,830
Turkey 89,168,726 80,847,709 -8,321,017
Spain 66,525,906 72,405,242 +5,879,336
China 65,699,442 66,968,059 +1,268,617
Ireland 63,868,288 59,480,330 -4,387,958

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 367,042,075
Belgium 332,710,922
France 305,497,961
Brazil 231,608,535
Netherlands 219,811,863

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 168,988,138 198,053,937 +29,065,799
Belgium 183,287,534 149,423,388 -33,864,146
France 170,172,948 135,325,013 -34,847,935
Brazil 108,732,778 122,875,757 +14,142,979
Netherlands 116,484,373 103,327,490 -13,156,883
Czechia 91,333,771 87,593,990 -3,739,781
Turkey 91,838,060 85,910,793 -5,927,267
China 75,038,635 73,562,008 -1,476,627
Spain 71,733,140 75,919,088 +4,185,948
Poland 71,254,164 59,428,807 -11,825,357

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 184
Inner London - West 125
Outer London - East and North East 122
Inner London - East 117
Greater Manchester 100

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 134 146 +12
Inner London - West 99 87 -12
Outer London - East and North East 90 97 +7
Inner London - East 92 88 -4
Greater Manchester 77 78 +1
Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire 62 56 -6
West Midlands 53 50 -3
Leicestershire, Rutland and Northamptonshire 57 54 -3
Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire 52 49 -3
West Yorkshire 44 48 +4

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) 1,694,216,166
Sea transport (not vehicle on ferry) 1,401,630,437
Other 155,570,888
Road transport 36,995,136
Air transport 17,286,546

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) 876,553,890 817,662,276 -58,891,614
Sea transport (not vehicle on ferry) 723,043,237 678,587,200 -44,456,037
Other 83,104,995 72,465,893 -10,639,102
Road transport 9,228,817 27,766,319 +18,537,502
Air transport 8,664,856 8,621,690 -43,166
Rail transport 381,464 641,930 +260,466

Import volume by port

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

Top 5 values

Port £
London 580,613,583
Dover 556,496,034
Immingham Docks 369,153,526
Felixstowe 299,636,931
Eurotunnel 217,058,769

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 311,817,453 268,796,130 -43,021,323
Dover 289,127,281 267,368,753 -21,758,528
Immingham Docks 170,621,607 198,531,919 +27,910,312
Felixstowe 173,989,430 125,647,501 -48,341,929
Eurotunnel 117,655,599 99,403,170 -18,252,429
Southampton 86,590,563 80,678,199 -5,912,364
000 83,090,965 71,981,218 -11,109,747
Dover / Eurotunnel 64,422,886 64,982,568 +559,682
Hull 72,186,154 57,197,099 -14,989,055
Liverpool Docks 54,320,571 54,393,945 +73,374

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 838
Retail trade, except of motor vehicles and motorcycles 408
Manufacture of food products 269
Food and beverage service activities 139
Office administrative, office support and other business support activities 73

Importer companies over time

What this shows: Monthly count of unique importing companies.

Latest 5

Month Companies
2026-05 454
2026-04 460
2026-03 461
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 660
0-1m 431
54m+ 289
15m-54m 139
Other 111

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 232,059,144
Netherlands 52,856,431
Germany 50,818,256
United States 46,321,773
Belgium 38,557,809

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 116,635,225 115,423,919 -1,211,306
Netherlands 26,471,157 26,385,274 -85,883
Germany 25,540,356 25,277,900 -262,456
United States 19,645,423 26,676,350 +7,030,927
Belgium 21,193,609 17,364,200 -3,829,409
Italy 16,219,049 16,245,103 +26,054
Norway 16,193,984 14,531,120 -1,662,864
Poland 15,280,478 13,636,005 -1,644,473
Canada 10,202,611 13,640,365 +3,437,754
Spain 16,567,511 7,119,726 -9,447,785

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 15,327,622
Ireland 5,312,550
Guatemala 4,750,773
Germany 3,908,037
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 7,012,368 8,315,254 +1,302,886
Ireland 2,874,896 2,437,654 -437,242
Guatemala 2,508,188 2,242,585 -265,603
Germany 1,769,506 2,138,531 +369,025
Nicaragua 2,040,948 1,237,561 -803,387
Spain 1,667,519 1,366,875 -300,644
Fiji 0 1,781,539 +1,781,539
Czechia 858,023 531,254 -326,769
Belgium 636,259 662,960 +26,701
Indonesia 40,240 1,220,645 +1,180,405

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) 488,521,961
Sea transport (not vehicle on ferry) 250,449,260
Other 66,620,143
Air transport 12,395,453
Road transport 1,302

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) 255,880,864 232,641,097 -23,239,767
Sea transport (not vehicle on ferry) 122,207,472 128,241,788 +6,034,316
Other 32,901,339 33,718,804 +817,465
Air transport 5,776,469 6,618,984 +842,515
Road transport 1,302 0 -1,302

Export volume by port

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

Top 5 values

Port £
Dover / Eurotunnel 176,732,180
Liverpool Docks 150,279,250
London Gateway Port 75,524,265
Immingham Docks 72,122,973
000 65,969,194

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 85,073,481 91,658,699 +6,585,218
Liverpool Docks 69,096,820 81,182,430 +12,085,610
London Gateway Port 36,252,586 39,271,679 +3,019,093
Immingham Docks 38,503,147 33,619,826 -4,883,321
000 32,889,229 33,079,965 +190,736
Holyhead 27,556,173 26,073,531 -1,482,642
Felixstowe 36,969,234 15,956,305 -21,012,929
London 25,633,363 23,328,621 -2,304,742
Southampton 12,874,144 10,620,546 -2,253,598
Thamesport 8,650,754 10,831,794 +2,181,040

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