September 1, 2010

Ukraine ceases virtually all grain exports

Ukraine's Customs Service has almost completely stopped grain exports and has strengthened additional grain quality checks, traders said on Tuesday (Aug 31).

"The situation has become even more difficult. Last week we were able to ship some grain, but this week all shipments are blocked in ports by customs," said one Ukrainian trader.

He said his company could not get any explanation from customs officials.

"We shipped one vessel last week after a serious delay, but nothing so far this week," another trader said.

The head office of Ukraine's Customs Service said, however, there were no new orders and that the latest obstacles could be a "local initiative". "We have not issued any new orders," customs spokeswoman Svetlana Sudak said.

Last week, the deputy head of Ukraine's customs service, Serhiy Semka said the service would keep up quality checks on all Ukrainian wheat export shipments, in spite of unhappiness among traders, and might extend them to other cereals. However, Semka said the checks should not take more than five days and that customs would not create any artificial bans on exports.

Ukraine's grain traders association UZA urged the government to clarify the exports regime. "If the government has decided not to introduce restrictions, we urge it to remove all artificial barriers to grain traders' work," it said in a statement.

The government earlier this month proposed limiting exports of wheat and barley to 2.5 million tonnes between September and December but has put off the final decision until October.