February 3, 2012

Ukraine's grain exports up by 63%

As of February 1, and since the start of the current marketing year, July-June 2012, Ukraine exported 11.44 million tonnes of grains, 62.5% higher compared with the same date of the previous marketing year.

According to the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food, in particular, as of February 1, corn export volumes increased in 3.3 times - to 6.45 million tonnes, wheat - up 14.4%, to 2.95 million tonnes (including 1.64 million tonnes of milling wheat, 1.31 million tonnes of feed wheat). At the same time, barley exports decreased by 18.2% - to 1.94 million tonnes.

According to the announcement, in January Ukraine exported 1.92 million tonnes of grains, including 1.38 million tonnes of corn, 0.47 million tonnes of wheat and 72 thsd tonnes of barley only.

The Ministry also reported that as of January 27, 2012, the ports stocked 1.1 million tonnes of grains, including 0.44 million tonnes of wheat, 0.08 million tonnes of barley and 0.54 million tonnes of corn.

As of January 25, 2012, traders contracted 4.49 million tonnes of wheat (4 million tonnes of milling wheat, 0.48 million tonnes of feed wheat), two million tonnes of barley and 11.9 million tonnes of corn.

According to the forecast of the Ministry, in the terms of the complete domestic provision of grain needs and forming of the necessary carry-over reserves, in 2011/12 MY the exports of grains may reach 26.2 million tonnes, including 7.6 million tonnes of wheat.

As a reminder, in early 2012 participants of the grain market of the country indicated problems with exports of grains due to lack of rail cars and issuance of permitting documents for transportation of grains.

According to preliminary data of the State Statistics Service, in 2011 Ukraine produced 56.7 million tonnes of grains in clean weight, up 44.3% compared to 2010 results.