Ukrainian mukomols and cereals producers began to master and gain a foothold in new markets and increase export volumes, in 2023 they can supply 150 thousand tons of flour to foreign markets, said the chairman of the association “Ukrpischeprom”, director of the union “Mukomols of Ukraine” Rodion Rybchinsky.
“In calendar year 2021 we exported 102 thousand tons of flour, in 2022 the active export began in September and reached 80 thousand tons. In the five months of this year, we have already exported 74,000 tons. With such dynamics, we see the possibility of exporting 150 thousand tons of flour by the end of the year,” he said during a discussion on the prospects of exports during the war, held by the Institute for Economic Research and Policy Consulting.
According to his information, the war has made significant changes in the export of flour and cereals and bran. Previously these products were exported by sea from the main shipment bases in Kherson, Nikolaev, and Odessa. Traditional importers of Ukrainian flour and cereals were UAE, Palestine, Somalia, Israel, and bran – Turkey, where 95% of them were sent by sea.
The war has made significant adjustments to the geography of sales of these products, and today the largest importers of Ukrainian flour are Moldova, Poland, Palestine, Romania, Croatia and Turkey, said Rybchynskyy.
In the EU countries, in particular Poland, Romania, Germany, Spain, Portugal, are actively exported cereals. Last year 68 thousand tons of cereals were exported to foreign markets, while during five months of 2023 – 38 thousand tons.
In this case, Rybchinsky noted a change in the ways of sending flour and cereals for export.
“We do not use the Black Sea Grain Initiative and the Danube ports. There the rent of one grain warehouse at a distance of 5-10 km from the quay wall can cost $100 thousand per month. Therefore, logistics related to work on the Danube, eat up all the possible earnings,” said the expert, adding that the main export of flour and cereals is carried by road and only 15% by rail.
According to the head of the industry association, exporters now have problems when crossing Western borders. Despite the electronic queue, cars with products stand in queues for 2-3 weeks.
“This has led to the loss of substantial contracts with Polish and Romanian retail chains, where Ukrainian suppliers have not been able to ensure timely delivery of products. Currently, Ukrainian mills have to work mainly with industrial processors,” Rybchynsky explained.
At the same time, he noted that Polish pasta made from Ukrainian flour has already appeared on the Ukrainian market.
Ukrzaliznytsia JSC (UZ) has addressed to the carriers with a request to increase transportation through Hungarian border crossing points (BCP), which are currently underutilized and have reserves for cargo transfer, Deputy Director of Commercial Work Department of the company Valery Tkachev said on Tuesday at the online meeting with Hungarian carriers.
According to him, in June a total of 1,789 cars were handled at Chop-Zakhon crossing point and they transported 95.8 thousand tons of cargo of different nomenclature: on average this crossing in both directions handles 59.6 cars per day (w/w), including 51 cars for export from Ukraine.
Comparing June indicators with May ones, Tkachev noted an increase of cargo flow at this gateway by 13 w/c, or 27.4%.
UZ representative reminded that during last four months the maximum level of cargo traffic through Chop-Zakhon was registered in March – 83 car/cargo.
Tkachev noted that to date the main nomenclature of the crossing “Chop-Zakhon” grain, which in June was transferred at 50.5 r/c.
According to his information, there are 4 carriers at this intersection. The biggest is Rail Cargo Hungary (RCH), which in June handled 904 cars at a rate of over 30 b/c. RCH’s largest nomenclature is grains (707 cars), apart from which 85 cars with containers and imported oil cargoes were handled.
MMV Magyar Maganvasut Zrt (MMV) handled 421 wagons at the Chop-Zahan BC in June at a rate of 14 v/c. Grain also accounted for the bulk of the cargo – 370 wagons, and oil cargo imports also accounted for a significant share.
Magyar Vasuti Aruszallito Kft. (MVA) handled 402 cars at 13.5 v/c, of which 377 were loaded with grain.
CD Cargo Hungary accounted for 62 cars of grain cargo in June
“As for Chop-Zakhon, we don’t see any queue on the wide gauge (1524 mm), the narrow gauge (1435 mm) is dealt with. That is, I personally do not see any problems with the transfer and with the work of “Chop-Zalkhan”,” – said Tkachev.
According to UZ in June in Batevo-Epereshkoe 3 731 carriages with 252,3 thousand tons of different nomenclature were processed. On average, 121 v/c was dispatched from Ukraine for export, while 3.5 v/c was received. In total, this joint handles 124.4 v/c.
“For Batevo-Epereshka, we see a significant slump and a drop in cargo work of 28.5 v/c, or 18.6%. If we look at the grain group, we transfer an average of 20.6 v/c through this crossing. Last month this figure was almost 26 v/c. We in March, for example, handled 94 grain v/c. Today, unfortunately, “Batevo-Epereshka” only about 21 c / c, “- said Tkachev.
According to his information, two carriers – MMV and RCH – work at this junction. MMV handled 19 v/c: in June 247 out of 565 cars most of them were used for oil.
In turn, RCH on “Batevo-Epereshka” in June handled 3166 cars with 215,2 thousand tons of various cargo types, including the ore – 1945 cars, grain – 531, coal – 205. Its average daily rate is about 105.5 v/c.
“There are only 385 cars moving in the Batevo-Epereshke direction, including 196 with ore, 30 with grain, 25 with cake and 26 with oil. The junction is underloaded, as “Chop-Zakhon”, so there is an opportunity to increase”, – added Tkachev.
He also noted that a total of two Hungarian crossing handle the largest volume of grain per day – more than 70 cars.
“This is more than all the joints of Poland (four BCPs), Romania and other countries. That is, today Hungary is the leader in handling grain cargoes,” – stated Tkachev.
Lebanon has opened a market for the export of small ruminants from Ukraine, particularly sheep and goats for slaughter, according to the press service of the State Service of Ukraine for Food Safety and Consumer Protection.
According to the State Consumer Service, this is the third certificate, which the countries have concluded. Previously, the competent authorities of Ukraine and Lebanon had agreed on the forms of certificates for export of milk and dairy products and cattle for slaughtering from Ukraine.
You can familiarize yourself with the conditions for obtaining the certificate and the information required for its issuance on the official web portal of the State Service for the Protection of Consumers in the section “International Cooperation” – “Veterinary and Safety” – “Certificates for export from Ukraine”.
Moldova in January-March 2023 increased 6.5 times the export of alcoholic beverages to Ukraine – up to $ 9.40 million compared to the same period last year ($ 1.44 million), the National Bank of Moldova (NBM) said.
“With a share of 17.6% of the total export volume, Ukraine has become the main market for Moldovan alcohol, pushing Belarus and Romania to second and third place with shares of 17.1% and 14.5%, respectively,” – as quoted from NBM information, Moldovan edition mold-street.com
At the same time, Ukraine was on the first place among the importers of alcohol to Moldova, Russia – on the eighth.
In the first quarter of this year, Moldova increased the export of alcohol and ethyl alcohol by 26.8%, which in monetary terms amounted to $ 53.47 million.
The Kiev analytical Club of Experts, in order to promote Ukrainian wine, began a series of seminars and tastings. You can learn more about it by following the link
Ukraine exported in 2022/2023 marketing year (from July 1, 2022 to June 30, 2023) 48.996 million tons of grain and leguminous products, which is 641 thousand tons more than in 2021/2022 MY, said the press service of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food.
During the previous marketing year, Ukraine exported 48.355 million tons of grain and leguminous products, in particular: 18.72 million tons of wheat, 5.747 million tons of barley, 161.5 thousand tons of rye and 23.409 million tons of corn.
It is noted that in 2022/2023, as of June 30, Ukraine reduced exports of wheat by 10.6% – to 16.836 million tons, barley by 52.9% – to 2.704 million tons, rye by 88.9% – to 18 thousand tons, but increased supplies of corn to foreign markets by 24.4%, which reached 29.128 million tons.
According to the report, Ukraine increased exports of all major export items of agricultural products in June 2023, in particular, 2.9 times the supplies to foreign markets of cereals and leguminous plants increased and reached 3.658 million tons. Export of wheat increased by 10.9 times – to 1.338 million tons of wheat (last June – 122 thousand tons), barley – 1.8 times – to 57 thousand tons, corn – twice – to 2.257 million tons.
Ukraine did not export rye in June 2023 and in June last year.
Since the beginning of 2022/2023 MY, Ukraine exported 153.6 thousand tons of flour, which is 2.2 times more than a year earlier, when exports were 70.7 thousand tons.
According to the Ministry of Agrarian Policy, Ukraine exported more than 22.5 million tons of grain in January-May 2023, including more than 14.3 million tons of corn, more than 7.2 million tons of wheat and more than 977 thousand tons of barley.
Hungarian Minister of Agriculture Istvan Nagy is not satisfied with the work of European solidarity corridors and believes that the expansion of the traditional maritime transport route, which now takes only 12% of Ukrainian agricultural products, will help to reduce the pressure on domestic markets of the EU.
“The current solidarity routes are not fulfilling their role, as the products remain in Ukraine’s neighboring countries. We used to have 40-50 thousand tons of grain, now we have 2.5 million tons. The purpose is to expand the traditional sea transport route, by which now only 12% of Ukrainian products leave. This will reduce the load on the land route and reduce the pressure on EU domestic markets,” the Hungarian Ministry of Agriculture quoted him as saying at a press conference with his Polish counterpart Robert Telusz in Warsaw on Thursday.
Nagy said he had asked his Polish counterpart for a mandate to negotiate with the Turkish side to open new sea routes for grain exports in addition to the existing three Black Sea ports.
He called it important to maintain and expand cooperation among the five EU member states. “We are determined to continue to cooperate (…) to find a common European solution to this problem; it is an important humanitarian and solidarity goal,” the Hungarian minister stressed.
Nagy praised the joint actions of the five EU member states – Bulgaria, Romania and Slovakia, as well as Poland and Hungary – in suspending imports of Ukrainian grain. Thanks to the joint implementation of the will “today we can protect our borders and farmers as a result of measures of the European Union, not national measures,” he said, and expressed regret that the restrictive measures are valid only until September 15.
Hungarian and Polish ministers stated that the restriction period until Sept. 15 was too short. “For example, the corn harvest will still be going on, so we definitely need to push for the extension (of restrictive measures – IF),” Nagy said.
Polish Minister of Agriculture Robert Telusz called important the Hungarian initiative to expand the Black Sea Route, which he said Warsaw would support. At the same time, he stressed the need for the development of land transport routes.
Telusz praised the merits of the Hungarian side in the creation of the five-member coalition on the grain issue. He noted that without the actions of this association the European Commission “would not have seen the problem at all”.
The Polish minister also stressed the importance of maintaining this alliance. “Together we can fight not only for issues important to our countries, but also for the future of Europe,” he said.
According to him, after the war is over, the process of Ukraine’s integration into the European Union can continue, and with it, “the issue of Ukrainian products will come up again.” “If today we do not make the European Commission develop real tools to solve this problem, the problem will have unpleasant consequences,” Telusz said.
He also said that he agreed with his Hungarian colleague to organize a meeting with Ukrainian Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food Nicholas Solsky to find common solutions to solve the problem of grain imports.
