November 3, 2010

Ukraine may lift grain export quotas

Ukraine's economy ministry has proposed to lift quotas for grain exports to Russia, Georgia, Macedonia, and nine other Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries, all of which hold free trade agreements (FTA) with Ukraine.

The ministry announced relevant draft resolution on Monday (Nov 1), giving no details on the amount of exports, according to reports.

The Ukrainian government imposed quotas on grain exports on October 7.

According to the government decision, grain exports this year will be limited to two million tonnes of corn, 500,000 tonnes of wheat and 500,000 tonnes of barley.

The quotas will be in force until the end of the year, "but could be lifted earlier," it said.

However, last week Ukraine agreed to supply two million tonnes of corn to Russia out of quotas.

Earlier, the country agreed to supply 120,000 tonnes of grain to Georgia.