July 4, 2012

Ukraine stops grain export ban in 2012

Ukraine Prime Minister Nikolai Azarov said during his Tuesday's (July 3) meeting with Ukrainian farmers that the country is halting its imposition of grain export restrictions in the current year.

"We will impose no quotas this year," he said, adding, "We hope to collect sufficient grain harvest, in spite of problems triggered by complicated weather conditions."

The Ukrainian government had to impose restrictions on grain export at the end of 2010 - beginning of 2011 due to the shortage of grain.

In 2011, Ukraine gathered the record high grain harvest of 56.7 million tonnes, thus becoming one of the world's three leading grain exporters.

This year, Kiev plans to harvest at least 42-50 million tonnes of grain and to sell up to 20-21 million tonnes of grain at the international market.