February 17, 2012

Ukraine exports 510,000 tonnes grain on February 1-15

In the first 15 days of February, Ukraine exported about 510,000 tonnes of grain, mostly corn, Kiev-based ProAgro consultancy said on Thursday (Feb 16).

ProAgro said Ukraine had exported about 417,000 tonnes of corn and 86,500 tonnes of wheat. No figures for the same period of 2011 were immediately available.

The consultancy said Ukrainian wheat went mostly to Italy (27,500 tonnes), Jordan (25,500 tonnes) and Israel (15,000 tonnes).

The former Soviet republic supplied corn mostly to South Korea (59,700 tonnes), Egypt (81,500 tonnes), Taiwan (49,600 tonnes), Germany (30,000 tonnes), Syria (23,000 tonnes), Israel, Turkey and Iran.

ProAgro said an additional 836,000 tonnes of corn, 345,000 tonnes of wheat and 47,500 tonnes of barley would be exported in the near future.

Ukraine exported 1.16 million tonnes of grain, mostly corn, in January. Ukrainian grain exports fell to 2.18 million tonnes in December 2011 from 2.29 million tonnes in November.

Last month, Ukraine exported corn mostly to Egypt, Spain and Iran, while it sold wheat to Spain, Egypt and South Korea.

Ukraine harvested a record 56.4 million tonnes of grain in 2011 and the Agriculture Ministry forecasts exports at about 23 million tonnes in the 2011/12 season.

Analysts forecast that exports will not exceed 21 million tonnes this season. UkrAgroConsult agriculture consultancy said this week Ukraine's grain exports could be about one million tonnes in February.