November 15, 2010

Ukraine's economy minister distributes grain export quotas

Ukraine's Economy Ministry announced Friday (Nov 12) it had distributed grain export quotas, including 1.414 million tonnes of corn, 500,000 tonnes of wheat and 200,000 tonnes of barley.

The wheat and barley quotas were distributed in full, but the remainder of the two-million-tonne corn export quota will be distributed in the next few days after bids are received from exporters.

The ministry said it would publish the list of exporters who have received the quotas by 1800 local time Friday (Nov 12). Licenses to export grain will be issued to exporters in the next one to two days.

Ukraine's crops have been badly damaged by drought. The Agriculture Ministry said earlier it expected this year's harvest at 38.6 million tonnes, down from 46 million tonnes in 2009.

Ukraine's grain export in the 2010-2011 marketing year was earlier expected by the Agriculture Ministry to fall to 12.7 million tonnes from 20.7 million tonnes in the previous marketing year, but the government has imposed a grain export quota of 2.7 million tonnes until December 31.