Kyiv – December 30, 2020
Ukraine’s grain exports have fallen by almost 17% to 25.27 million tonnes this season, which runs from July 2020 to June 2021, economy ministry data showed on Monday.
Traders have sold 8.34 million tonnes of corn and 3.75 million tonnes of barley, the data showed.
They also exported 12.38 million tonnes of wheat, using 71% of the 17.5 million tonnes quota set for the 2020/21 season.
The agriculture consultancy said Ukrainian wheat export prices had risen by $3 per tonne over the past week on strong demand from exporters concerned about the uncertainty with wheat exports from Russia.
Ukraine, which accounts for roughly 16% of global grain exports, sold about 57 million tonnes of grain to foreign buyers in the 2019/20 season.
The government has said that exports could decline to around 44.2 million tonnes in 2020/21 due to a smaller harvest.
The economy ministry this month said that the 2020 grain crop fell to 64.5 million tonnes from 2019’s record 75.1 million tonnes.
However, yesterday, the some Ukrainian Minister of Economy estimated that 90% of winter cereals are in favourable condition.
The hot and rainy weather in November has enabled crops to recover from a previously degraded situation.
Nevertheless, it should be noted that the autumnal drought has caused a net decrease in the cereals’ surface area of about -5% and more than -10% in rapeseed.
This last crop remains the most impacted because it has been sown earlier.
The Minister added that he is expecting a good harvest in 2021.
The yields could actually largely compensate for acreage loss and thus enable Ukrainian wheat production to exceed 25 million tonnes.
