Grain harvest in Ukraine in 2023, according to the forecast of the Ministry of Economy, will be about 49.5 million tons, which is better than the estimate of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) of 46 million tons, First Deputy Minister Denis Kudin told Interfax-Ukraine
“Ukraine will definitely have enough food, the problem with the rest of the world: we have become a weighty player on the world stage, so if the logistics of agricultural products from Ukraine is important to us because it is the inflow of foreign exchange earnings, it is important to the world because it is food security for it,” he said on the sidelines of the business forum on the rapid recovery of Ukraine in Luxembourg, organized by the Ukrainian-Luxembourg Business Club.
The First Deputy Minister noted that in the current situation the Ministry of Economy sees no need to resort to any bans or quotas on the export of agricultural products, but at the same time will maintain the licensing of its individual types.
“Through licensing we receive information on the exported volume, and if we see that the balance does not add up, that our domestic consumption is at risk of being unsustainable, then we reserve the right to limit the export,” he explained.
In general, as Kudin pointed out, the balance of payments forecast of the Ministry of Economy for 2023 is much more positive than that of the NBU.
According to the Ministry of Agrarian Policy, Ukrainian farmers harvested 52.6 million tons of grain and leguminous crops by January 27, 2023. During the week, the total area of harvested crops increased by 1 percentage point (p.p.) – up to 96% of previously planned areas, including corn which had to be harvested from 10% of areas (+3 p.p. during the week). By January 27, a total of 25.2 million tons of corn had been harvested.
