August 6, 2010

Ukraine resumes grain exports

Ukraine practically exported no grain in the fourth week of July due to customs restrictions, but exports resumed in August, according to an official at the state customs service.

The official said Ukrainian customs practically stopped processing grain export for loading on ships at sea ports as of July 23 and only resumed processing exports July 29.

At the same time, the national railway authority Ukrzaliznitsya also stopped transporting grain to the ports, and only resumed operations toward the end of the month.

The actions of the customs and railways were based on the need "to fight against smuggling."

As a result, Ukraine's wheat exports in July totalled 224,600 tonnes compared with 626,700 tonnes in July 2009. Corn exports fell to 65,400 tonnes from 289,100 tonnes a year ago.

The Ukrainian customs at the end of July introduced extra controls on grain exports.

Tigipko said, "There are no economic grounds for grain export restrictions."

He added that Ukraine was likely to harvest about 40 million tonnes of grain this year. Taking into account the six million tonnes remaining from last year, Ukraine can export in the current marketing year 17 million tonnes of grain.