March 13, 2012

Ukraine perceives no grain export limits in 2012/13

Despite drought late last year followed by sharp frosts, Ukraine will not impose grain export limits in the coming season because of expectations of an "average" harvest, Prime Minister Mykola Azarov said on Monday (Mar 12).

Azarov told Reuters in an interview that the former Soviet republic had enough milling grain to meet all domestic needs in 2012/13.

"We have had to reseed some areas (of damaged winter grains) but harvest prospects are not too bad. It's clear that we will not have the same terrible harvest which we had in 2003," Azarov said. Icy conditions that year led to a disastrously poor harvest of 24 million tonnes.

"We will get an average harvest which should allow us to resolve all our problems." He gave no figure.

"Imposing any types of quotas is not on the agenda," he added.

Ukrainian farmers had raised concerns over the harvest after a record drought in July-November followed by severe frosts in January-February which damaged about a third of the winter crop.

But Farm Minister Mykola Prysyazhnyuk said last month that Ukraine was likely to harvest 42-50 million tonnes of grain this year against a record 56.7 million in 2011. Ukraine consumes 26 million tonnes of grain per season.

Kiev-based ProAgro consultancy earlier on Monday raised its forecast for Ukraine's 2012 grain harvest by 7% to 45.66 million tonnes due to a bumper harvest of corn.

The country was likely to harvest 21.3 million tonnes of corn and 14.3 million tonnes of wheat this year, the consultancy said in a note.