Exports of agricultural products from Ukraine in January 2019 amounted to $1.7 billion, which is almost 22.5% more than in the same month in 2018, the press service of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food has reported.
According to the report, grain crops traditionally remain the leaders of Ukrainian agricultural exports with a share of 44.6% in the total structure of agricultural exports, the share of vegetable oils is 19.8%, oilseeds some 9.7%.
“The EU countries rank first among our sales markets, to which we exported $668 million worth of products in January. Asian countries lost to our European neighbors with a little more than $641 million. African countries rank third. Ukrainian agricultural exports there stood at $292.2 million,” Acting Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food Olha Trofimtseva said.
According to her, the top five key countries importing Ukrainian agricultural products in January (by volume of exports in value terms) were Egypt with $153.6 million, the Netherlands with $149.9 million, India with $143.9 million, Spain with $135.8 million, and Turkey with $112.3 million.
Ukraine’s Agricultural Policy and Food Ministry has revised upwards its forecast for exports of grain from Ukraine for 2018/19 agricultural year (July-June) from 47.2 million tonnes to 49 million tonnes, the press service of the ministry has reported. “This agricultural year we expect that grain exports from Ukraine would reach 49 million tonnes,” Deputy Minister Olha Kovaleva said.
As reported, Ukraine since the beginning of the 2018/2019 agri-year as of February 20, 2019 had exported 31.31 million tonnes of grain and leguminous plants, which is 21.5% more than on the same date of the previous agri-year. On the specified date, 164,000 tonnes of flour had been also exported.
The gross grain harvest in Ukraine in 2018 amounted to about 70.1 million tonnes compared to 62 million tonnes in 2017.
The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) has stated the requirement for the mandatory sale of export earnings could be cancelled, governor of the central bank Yakiv Smolii has said.
“As market conditions develop, we think we’ll cancel this rule,” he said at a conference of the American Chamber of Commerce in Kyiv.
As reported, the National Bank of Ukraine in early February 2019 announced the decision to reduce the norm for the mandatory sale of export earnings from 50% to 30% from March 1.
Ukraine in 2018 exported grain for $7.2 billion, hitting the record, the press service of the Institute of Agrarian Economics national research center has reported.
According to the Institute of Agrarian Economics, grain exports in kind fell by 0.4% in 2018 compared with 2018, to 41.7 million tonnes, and the record revenue is linked to growth of grain prices.
The volume of wheat and barley exports in 2018 fell compared with 2017 to 16.4 million tonnes and 3.6 million tonnes respectively.
At the same time, according to the institute, in 2018, corn exports exceeded the figure for 2017 by 10%, amounting to 21.4 million tonnes. Export of rye also increased fourfold, but its volumes still remain insignificant – about 100,000 tonnes.
According to the Institute of Agrarian Economics, the countries of Asia, Europe and Africa remain the largest buyers of Ukrainian grain. Egypt is the leader with a share of 9.2%, but in 2018 it reduced purchases of Ukrainian grain to $666 million (a fall of 20%).
Spain ranked second for the second year in a row (8.9%), which in 2018 increased the volume of grain purchases to $643 million (a rise of 35%). The top buyers of Ukrainian grain are the following: the Netherlands ($556 million), China ($552 million), Indonesia ($487 million), Saudi Arabia ($449 million), Italy ($336 million), Philippines ($316 million), Tunisia ($290 million), Morocco ($263 million), and Libya ($248 million). In total, these 11 countries formed two thirds of the value of all purchases of grain products, the Institute of Agrarian Economics reported.
Ferrexpo Plc (the U.K.), which in Ukraine controls Poltava and Yeristovo mining enterprises, in 2018 exported 10.287 million tonnes of pellets to European countries, as well as to Japan, Taiwan, South Korea and China, remaining the leader in exports of pellets among similar companies from the CIS. The company said in a press release on Wednesday that the information was published by state-owned enterprise Ukrainian Industry Expertise.
Poltava Mining exported 7.61 million tonnes of iron ore pellets and Yeristovo Mining – 2.677 million tonnes.
According to the document, the Metinvest group exported 5.374 million tonnes of pellets (including Pivnichny Mining – 3.136 million tonnes, Central Mining – 2.239 million tonnes).
The Severstal Group, in particular, the Karelsky Okatysh (Russia) exported 5.293 million tonnes of iron ore pellets for the reporting period. The Metalloinvest group exported 4.205 million tonnes of pellets (including Mikhailovsky GOK – 2.817 million tonnes, Lebedinsky GOK – 1.389 million tonnes, all of them based in Russia). The Evraz group, in particular EVRAZ KGOK, exported 558,900 tonnes of pellets.
“Ferrexpo has traditionally become the leader in the export of iron ore pellets among the enterprises of the former USSR countries, according to the results of 12 months of 2018,” the company said in the press release referring to the data of Ukrainian Industry Expertise.
In addition, it is reported that during this period, Poltava Mining produced 10.607 million tonnes of iron ore pellets. The production of Mikhailovsky GOK totaled 14.887 million tonnes of iron ore pellets, Karelsky Okatysh – 11.225 million tonnes, and Pivnichny Mining – 8.45 million tonnes.
