April 16, 2012

Ukraine's March grain exports up 67%

Ukraine exported over 2.7 million tonnes of grain in March, the largest monthly figure for the past two seasons and 67% more than in February, the company Grain Ukraine reported.

"Corn continues to hold the key position in the structure of grain exports. During September-March, about 9.1 million tonnes of corn was exported from Ukraine, which is more than a half of all grain shipments. The shipments of other grain crops in July-March totalled about 6.1 million tonnes. The company estimates total shipments of Ukrainian grain in the season 2011-12 (July to March inclusive) at 15.2 million tonnes," experts say.

Egypt and Spain were the main markets for Ukrainian wheat in March, Saudi Arabia and Jordan for barley, Egypt, Iran, Spain, Portugal, Japan and South Korea for corn, when Israel and Sudan for sorghum.

Exports of oilseeds from Ukraine in the current season are relatively weak, especially as regards rape and sunflower, analysts say.

Since the beginning of the season, Ukraine has supplied to foreign markets around two million tonnes of oilseeds, while in the same period of the previous marketing year about 2.5 million tonnes.

Until the end of the marketing year, Ukraine is going to export seven million tonnes of grain, mostly corn.