February 17, 2011

Ukraine to extend grain export quotas until June

Ukraine will extend grain export quotas until the 2010/11 season that ends in June to avoid a jump in local wheat prices, the Farm Ministry said Wednesday (Feb 16).

"The minister said clearly that the quotas would be extended until the end of this marketing season. It means that there will be no sharp increase in demand for wheat," the ministry said.

The world's top barley exporter and a major wheat supplier, Ukraine introduced a 2.7 million tonne grain export quota last October and in December extended the quotas until March 31 and increased the volume to 4.2 million tonnes.

The export quotas followed a drought last summer which also prompted neighbouring Russia to ban grain exports for the 2010/11 season.

Last week, Ukrainian Farm Minister Mykola Prysyazhnyuk told reporters that his ministry would review the country's grain stocks to determine whether the ex-Soviet republic needed to restrict grain exports further.

The Ukraine's Economy Ministry said this month it had proposed that the government cancel restrictions on corn exports in the 2010/11 season.

Ukraine, which harvested 16.8 million tonnes of wheat in 2010, has exported about 2.7 million tonnes so far this season, down from 6.9 million tonnes in the same period in 2009/10.

Ukraine's grain exports fell to 7.3 million tonnes in the first seven months of the 2010/11 season from 15.8 million in the same period a season earlier, data provided by agriculture consultancy UkrAgroConsult showed.

Ukraine's exports of barley have fallen to 2.38 million tonnes from 4.18 million and exports of corn are down to 1.92 million tonnes from 3.59 million, the consultancy said.