November 2, 2011

Ukraine's wheat exports total 4.8 million tonnes

Ukraine's wheat exports totalled about 4.8 million tonnes in July-October of the 2011/12 marketing year and the oil-bearing crops exports reached 0.8 million tonnes.

According to the press centre of the Ukrainian Agrarian Confederation, in October, the exports amounted to just over 1.5 million tonnes of grain, including one million tonnes of corn, 0.3 million tonnes of barley and more than 0.2 million tonnes of wheat.

It is noted that such indicators of grain exports in the current year against the background of almost a 'historical-record' crop are 200,000 tonnes less than the exports during July-October 2010, when Ukraine introduced quotas on grain exports, and almost two times lower than in July-October of 2009, which is comparable with the current year by the gross grain harvest (8.9 million tonnes).

According to the director general of the Ukrainian Agrarian Confederation, Serhiy Stoyanov, this negativity of grain exports from Ukraine was due to the export taxes (July 1-September 22, 2011) in falling markets, both external and internal.

Among the reasons for the rather significant drop in exports of oilseeds in the current year compared to previous years (from 1.1 million tonnes in 2010 to 0.8 million tonnes in 2011), the expert called the change of VAT since July 1 this year, both in the internal transactions with rape and in its export.

As reported, the Ministry of Agricultural Policy and Food, and grain traders will jointly determine the export of cereals in marketing year 2011/2012.