January 18, 2011

Ukraine slashes grain exports to 60,100 tonnes

Ukraine's grain export cargoes fell from 400,000 tonnes to 60,100 tonnes in January 1-14 against the same period in December, analyst ProAgro said Monday (Jan 17).

Ukraine's government last year imposed grain export quotas until March 31 after a severe drought cut the 2010 grain harvest to around 39 million tonnes from 46 million in 2009. ProAgro said Ukraine had exported 6,810 tonnes of wheat, 46,880 tonnes of corn, 5,240 tonnes of barley and 1,170 tonnes of other cereals so far this month.

Export quotas cut Ukrainian grain exports to about 6.7 million tonnes in the first half of the 2010/11 season from about 14 million in the same period a season earlier.

The government has said the country could export between 12 million and 13 million tonnes of grain in 2010/11 compared with 21.5 million a season ago.