January 31, 2012

 

Weather slows Ukraine's grain exports

 

 

Traders said Monday (Jan 30) that severe frosts across most Ukrainian regions have slowed the pace of grain exports from the country's Black Sea ports.

 

Frosts at about minus 20 degrees Celsius (minus four Fahrenheit) make it impossible to load grain onto railway cars inside the country while strong wind and snow prevent grain loading in ports.

 

"At least several large ships are waiting for grain in Ukrainian ports. But it is so difficult to move grain to ports from inland silos," a large Ukrainian trader told Reuters.

 

"There are no exports from Ukrainian ports at the moment. With snow and storms, port authorities bar vessels from loading," another trader said.

 

Traders noted that marine exports will be insignificant until at least February 10. They said the situation in Russia was similar.

 

"Russian ports on the Sea of Azov are closed due to ice, wind and insufficient water depth," a trader said.

 

Russia's state weather forecaster said last week a fierce cold snap was hitting Russian southern wheat growing regions, where such hard winter frosts are unusual. In parts of the Southern Federal District and the North Caucasus Federal District, Russia's southern breadbasket regions, average daily temperatures were forecast 10-15 degrees Celsius (5-14 Fahrenheit) below multi-year averages from January 26-31.

 

Ukrainian weather forecasters said that snowfalls would protect winter grain crops from severe frosts. Ukraine's UkrAgroConsult agriculture consultancy said this month that about a third of winter grain crops were in poor condition as of mid-January due to a severe drought that hit the country during sowing.

 

Some 83.3% of the sown area had sprouted, down from more than 90% at the same date a year earlier. UkrAgroConsult said 67% of the sprouted crops were in good or satisfactory condition while 33% were in a poor state. The share of poor crops totalled 7% in January, 2011.

 

Another consultancy, ProAgro, last week said the former Soviet republic was likely to reduce grain harvest to about 40 million tonnes this year due to poor weather from a record of 56.7 tonnes in 2011. Russia and Ukraine dominate grain exports from the Black Sea region this season, having shipped abroad about 30 million tonnes of grain so far this season.

 

But Ukraine, which exported about 10.5 million tonnes of grain, mostly corn, in the first half of this season, cut the pace of exports in January, sending abroad 775,000 tonnes in January 1-25. Ukraine plans to export up to 23 million tonnes of grain in 2011/12 while Russia's export forecast is 24-25 million tonnes.