December 10, 2010

Ukraine's November grain exports plummet sharply

Ukraine's grain exports plunged from 1.39 million tonnes in October to 509,700 tonnes in November after the grain export quota imposition by the government last October 19, a grain market analyst reported Thursday (Dec 8).

The total figure of grain exports in November included 195,000 tonnes of wheat, 82,800 tonnes of barley and 198,900 tonnes of corn.

Grain exports in November 2009 totalled 2.3 million tonnes.

Ukraine's crops have been badly damaged by drought, and the agriculture ministry said earlier it expected this year's harvest to be 38.6 million tonnes in clean weight down from 46 million tonnes in 2009.

Earlier, the ministry foretold Ukraine's grain export in the 2010-2011 marketing year would fall to 12.7 million tonnes from 20.7 million tonnes in the previous marketing year. However, the grain export quota has limited exports to 2.7 million tonnes until December 31, and a later imposed extension to run until March 31 next year has allowed another 1.5 million tonnes.

In 2009, Ukraine's grain harvest fell to 46 million tonnes from 53.3 million tonnes in 2008.