July 17, 2012

Ukraine's grain stocks up at 9.8 million tonnes

As of July 1, the first month of the new July 2012-June 2013 season, Ukraine's grain stocks totalled 9.8 million tonnes as of July 1, compared with about 4.3 million tonnes at the same date in 2011, the State Statistics Service said on Monday (July 16).

Stocks at large and medium-sized agriculture companies included 5.4 million tonnes of wheat, 1.2 million tonnes of barley and 2.7 million tonnes of corn, the service said.

The volume does not include grain stored at hundreds of small Ukrainian farms. Ukraine harvested 56.7 million tonnes of grain in 2011.

The Agriculture Ministry has said Ukraine would have about 7.5 million tonnes of wheat in stock at the beginning of the next marketing season in July, while overall grain stocks could reach 11 million tonnes.

Ukraine, which consumes about 26 million tonnes of grain per season, plans to harvest 45.3 million tonnes of grain this year compared with 56.7 million in 2011.