September 6, 2010

Ukraine's grain exports show increase

Despite wheat export curbs by the customs service, Ukraine's grain exports increased to 1.32 million tonnes in August from 764,103 tonnes in July, according to analyst UkrAgroConsult.

The consultancy said Ukraine had exported 428,561 tonnes of wheat and 835,084 tonnes of barley in August. In July the export included 224,630 tonnes of wheat and 414,372 of barley.

The spike reflects the higher barley exports which have not been affected by the customs service's curb on wheat exports. August wheat exports, moreover, mainly took place in the first half of the month before the customs curbs took full effect.

Shipments in August were still far below last year's level.

"In August, grain exports from Ukraine approximated 1.3 million tonnes, which is much lower than in August 2009 when Ukraine exported 2.246 million tonnes. The decline of exports was due to reduction of wheat shipments," UkrAgroConsult said.

It said Ukraine exported a total of 2.04 million tonnes of grain in the two first months of the 2010/11 season compared to 3.9 million in July-August last year.

The wheat harvest could fall to about 17 million tonnes in 2010 from 20.9 million in 2009 after severe frosts last winter and a prolonged heat wave in July and August.

In late July, Ukrainian customs introduced additional wheat export quality checks and traders have said the new export rule caused a serious delay in shipments.

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