The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) in November improved the forecast for soybean exports from Ukraine for the 2018/2019 marketing year (MY, September-August) by 5%, or 150,000 tonnes compared to the September forecast, to 3.1 million tonnes. According to a report on the website of the American department, the USDA increased the forecast for oilseed exports from Ukraine by 100,000 tonnes, to 5.7 million tonnes, processing by 50,000 tonnes, to 15.55 million tonnes. The USDA forecast for meal exports was adjusted upward by 80,000 tonnes, to 5.15 million tonnes, oil by 20,000 tonnes, to 5.85 million tonnes.
According to the USDA forecasts, in the 2018/19 MY sunflower seed production in Ukraine will increase by 9.5% compared to the previous marketing year, to 15 million tonnes, meal by 6%, to 5.98 million tonnes, and oil also by 6%, to 6.2 million tonnes.
The export of sunflower seeds in the 2018/2019 MY could increase by 2.6 times, to 100,000 tonnes, meal by 8.5%, to 4.6 million tonnes, oil by 5%, to 5.6 million tonnes.
The USDA lowered the forecast for global production of oilseeds this month to 599.6 million tonnes (604 million tonnes in the September forecast).
Ukraine since the beginning of the 2018/2019 marketing year (MY, July-June) and as of October 31 had exported 13.285 million tonnes of grain, which is 0.6% less than on the same date of the previous MY.
According to the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food, farmers produced about 7.54 million tonnes of wheat, 2.69 million tonnes of barley, and 2.8 million tonnes of corn.
In addition, 65,700 tonnes of flour had been exported on the specified date.
As reported, with reference to the ministry, Ukraine exported 39.4 million tonnes of grain in the 2017/2018 MY. Grain export in the 2018/2019 MY is projected to be 42.5 million tonnes.
Ukraine in January-September 2018 exported fruits and berries in the amount of $157 million, which is 40% more compared to the same period last year. According to the Ukrsadprom association, the main products in this group were walnuts, which were delivered for $69 million, frozen fruits and berries worth $61 million, apples and pears for $10 million.
“The growth in exports of walnuts (from 13,000 tonnes in the first nine months of 2017 to 20,000 tonnes in the same period of the current year), apples and pears (from 9,000 tonnes to 29,000 tonnes respectively) was the most notable in natural terms,” according to the website of the association.
The main sales market remained the European Union, supplies to which bring about two-thirds of all foreign exchange earnings. In January-September 2018 the largest purchases of fruits were made by Poland ($32.3 million), France ($11.7 million), Belarus ($10.9 million), Turkey ($10.6 million), the Netherlands ($8.8 million), Germany ($7.4 million), and Italy ($7.2 million).
“If not to take into account imports of exotic fruits to Ukraine (mainly citrus fruits and bananas), for the three quarters of 2018 the surplus of foreign trade in fruits and berries reached $75 million,” the association said.
Ukrainian apples are exported to more than 50 countries, while they are mainly purchased by Belarus (43%), Moldova (20%), and Sweden (10%).
Ukraine since the beginning of the 2018/2019 marketing year (MY, July-June) and as of October 17 had exported 11.132 million tonnes of grain, which is 3.4% less than on the same date of the previous MY. According to the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food, the country exported about 6.68 million tonnes of wheat, 2.3 million tonnes of barley, and 1.91 million tonnes of corn.
In addition, 57,600 tonnes of flour had been exported by that date. As reported, with reference to the ministry, Ukraine exported 39.4 million tonnes of grain in the 2017/2018 MY. Grain exports in the 2018/2019 MY are projected to be 42 million tonnes.
The European Union is ready to begin commercial arbitration with Ukraine to lift a moratorium on exports of round timber as the one violating the Ukraine-EU Association Agreement, Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze has said. “Unfortunately, Ukraine really violates the Association Agreement with the introduction of the moratorium on round timber exports. This obligation will be considered as part of commercial arbitration. And the European Union is ready to start this arbitration between Ukraine and the EU,” she said at a briefing in Kyiv. According to the official, the lifting of the moratorium is excluded from the list of conditions for provision of macro-financial assistance by the European Union.
Speaking about the implementation of other provisions of the macro-financial assistance, in particular, the launch of automatic verification of electronic declarations of politicians and officials, the deputy premier said that coordination between various departments is underway to soon come to full ability to conduct automatic checks.
“The only problem that I see at the moment so that this system could work is changes in the legislation. The draft law from the government has been considered by the Verkhovna Rada for a very long time, maybe more than a year, the bill that regulates the automatic connection of the NACP (the National Agency on Corruption Prevention) to different registers,” she added.
Ukraine boosted exports of poultry meat and offal products by 14.9% to 243,720 tonnes in January-September 2018, Ukraine’s State Fiscal Service said on Wednesday.
Such exports in monetary terms increased by 29.3%, to $381.12 million, the State Fiscal Service said.
Imports of poultry meat and offal products in January-September 2018 increased by 24.4%, to 99,120 tonnes, such imports in monetary terms grew by 22.5%, to $39.23 million.
Exports of pork in January-September 2018 declined 65.5% year-over-year, to 1,490 tonnes. Pork exports were estimated at $3.2million against $9.2 million in the nine months ending September 2017.
Pork imports to Ukraine over this period soared by 6.2 times, to 19,670 tonnes. The country imported pork worth $36.79 million against $5.91 million in January-September 2017.
