August 16, 2012

Ukraine's grain exports in August will not be over 1.2 million tonnes, the same volume as in July.

"It will be great if exports reach 1.2 million tonnes this month," Agriculture Minister Mykola Prysyazhnyuk said.

Analyst UkrAgroConsult said this week Ukraine had exported 389,000 tonnes of grain, mostly wheat, in August 1-13.

Prysyazhnyuk said high local prices prevented traders from making large purchases of Ukrainian grains.

Local grain union UAC this week forecast that August exports could total 1.5 million tonnes.

Wheat and barley traditionally dominate Ukrainian grain exports in the first months in the marketing year.

Ukrainian milling wheat with 12.5% protein content cost US$244-251 per tonne ex-farm as of August 10, up from US$210-220 per tonne as of June 15. Export prices for Ukrainian 11.5% protein milling wheat rose to US$300-305 FOB as of August 10 from US$252-255 FOB in mid-June.

Ukraine has completed the 2012 wheat harvest, threshing 16.3 million tonnes of wheat bunker weight. The government says about five million tonnes of wheat could be exported in the 2012-13 season, which runs from July to June.

Analysts have said, however, that the wheat crop was unlikely to exceed 14 million tonnes, and they put exports at 4.5 million tonnes. Ukraine harvested 22.3 million tonnes of wheat in 2011 and exported 5.3 million tonnes in 2011-12.