June 18, 2012

Ukraine's grain stocks up 79% as of June 1

Compared to the same date in 2011, Ukraine's grain stocks grew 79% which totalled 10.9 million tonnes as of June 1, the State Statistics Service said on Friday (June 15).

Stocks at large- and medium-sized agriculture companies included 5.2 million tonnes of wheat, 1.1 million tonnes of barley and 4.1 million tonnes of corn, the service said.

The volume does not include grain stored at hundreds of small Ukrainian farms.

Ukraine harvested 56.7 million tonnes of grain in 2011 compared with 39.2 million in 2010.

The Agriculture Ministry said last month that Ukraine would have about 7.5 million tonnes of wheat in stock at the beginning of the next marketing season in July, while overall grain stocks could reach 11 million tonnes.

Local producers and traders have said the stocks will reach a record high 12 million tonnes. They also said record high deposits would prevent any grain export restrictions in the new 2012-13 season.

Ukraine, which consumes about 26 million tonnes of grain per season, plans to harvest from 45 million-50 million tonnes of grain this year compared with 56.7 million in 2011.