Ukraine's grain exports soared close to twenty-fold to 3.8 million tonnes in the first two months of the 2008/2009 season, from just 203,000 tonnes in the same period in 2007/2008, Reuters reports.

UkrAgroConsult agriculture consultancy said exports included 1.5 million tonnes of wheat and 1.8 million tonnes of barley.

Ukraine plans to harvest up to 50 million tonnes of grain in 2008 and agriculture officials see exports at 22.6 million tonnes in 2008/2009, up five-fold from 4 million tonnes in 2007/2008.

The harvest last year, at 29.3 million tonnes, was 20 million tonnes smaller than this year's.

Analysts, however, see the crop at 45.5m tonnes and exports at 17.2 million tonnes, including 8.2 million tonnes of wheat, 6 million tonnes of barley and 2.7 million tonnes of corn.

Meanwhile, Ukraine's Economy Ministry has proposed that the government allows only traders who buy grain on special commodity exchanges to be eligible for export so as to make prices more transparent.