March 26, 2012

Japan considers buying Ukrainian grains

Ukrainian state-run grain trader HlibInvestBud (HIB) said on Friday (Mar 23) that Japan's Agriculture and Livestock Industries Corporation is looking into buying Ukrainian feed grain.

Talks between Ukrainian and Japanese officials took place on Thursday in Kiev, but no formal agreements had been reached, HIB said in a statement.

"HIB will promote Ukrainian grain on the Japanese market," the head of HIB Robert Brovdi was quoted as saying.

He said Ukraine was already supplying grain to Asia with sales to Bangladesh and South Korea among others.

In December, a private Ukrainian company sent to Japan the first 64,000 tonnes of corn under an 800,000 tonne contract.

A market source said last year Japan had bought about 800,000 tonnes of corn from Ukraine for shipments between November and March to diversify suppliers.

Japan, the world's biggest corn importer, usually imports about 12 million tonnes a year of corn for animal feed, most of which comes from the US, the world's biggest corn exporter.

Ukraine harvested a record corn crop of 22.7 million tonnes in 2011, and plans to harvest 25 million tonnes in 2012.