Ukraine exported through seaports of Odessa region by 7% more agricultural products than a week earlier, its volume was 702.3 thousand tons. The increase in shipments was achieved due to the tonnage of ships, said the Ukrainian Agrarian Confederation of Business (UCAB).
“The number of ships loaded this week was only 14 units, which is two vessels less than the previous week. In fact, increase of shipments was achieved due to increase of tonnage of ships,” – analysts noted.
According to their information, corn (56%), wheat (18%) and sunflower oil cake (14%) took the major part in the export structure of Ukrainian agricultural products through this channel.
Ukrainian products went to Asian countries (China, Bangladesh, India and others), Europe (Spain, Portugal and Italy) and Africa (Egypt).
At the same time, the overall situation with the operation of the “grain corridor” continues to deteriorate. The Russian side suspended the inspection of ships on Tuesday, April 11 and Monday, April 17, 2023.
In the next three days, inspections of ships in the “grain corridor” will resume in accordance with a 50:50 temporary scheme, according to which 50% of inspections will be carried out by ships of the formed line, another 50% – by humanitarian cargoes.
In total, since the beginning of the “grain corridor” from August 1, 2022 to April 16, 2023, Ukraine has exported 28.1 million tons of agricultural products.
During the last week, the daily volume of grain export by rail decreased by 2-3 thousand tons per day on average – down to 108 thousand tons per day because of artificial delays in the registration of vessels by Russian representatives in inspection groups under the Joint Coordination Center in Istanbul and reducing the effectiveness of the “grain corridor”, said Valery Tkachev, Deputy Director of the department of commercial work UZ at a meeting with market participants on Thursday.
“If we compare the current daily average with a week ago, we can state a slight decrease in the average daily volume of grain transportation in the export direction: today we carry an average of 108 thousand tons per day, while a week ago – 110 thousand tons, mainly due to lower traffic volumes to sea ports,” – said Tkachev.
At the same time, he said, the volume of grain transportation in the direction of overland railroad crossings has increased on average by 1 thousand tons per day – up to almost 34 thousand tons per day.
In February (February 22) UZ already transported 2.37 million tons of grain for export.
Earlier Yuri Vaskov, deputy minister of reconstruction, said on Aljazeera English live broadcast that since October the efficiency of the “grain corridor” does not exceed 40% of the available export capacities.
On February 15, Ukraine issued a statement calling on the international community, particularly the United Nations and Turkey, as guarantors of the Black Sea Grain Initiative, to demand that Russia immediately stop its artificial delays and unblock commercial shipping to Ukrainian Black Sea ports.
The Ukrainian side notes that Russian representatives in the inspection teams under the Joint Coordination Centre in Istanbul have been systematically delaying for several months in a row the inspection of vessels transiting the Bosporus Strait to/from Ukrainian ports. Every day less than half of the planned 10 inspections usually take place. As a result, in the last three months alone the world was short 10 million tons of Ukrainian food, and the queue of ships waiting for inspection in the Bosporus exceeded 140 units.
Representatives of Ukraine noted that at the same time, Russia enjoys the opportunity of unimpeded commercial shipping from Russian Black Sea ports: the volume of traffic through Russian seaports in the Azov-Black Sea basin in 2022 was more than 250 million tons, which exceeded the figures in 2021.
Ukraine exported 5.5 million tons of grain, oilseeds and their products in January, which is 1.3 million tons less than in December, the Ministry of Agrarian Policy reported on Saturday.
“Such a downward dynamic is due to the artificial blocking of the “grain corridor” by Russian inspectors,” the ministry said.
It specified that the “grain initiative” shipped only 3 million tons in the first month of the year, while previously the export of agricultural products in the corridor was 4 million tons or more per month.
According to the Ministry of Agrarian Policy, corn exports fell by 700 thousand tons – to 2.6 million tons, wheat – by 250 thousand tons, to 1.3 million tons.
A total of 15.4 million tons of corn and 9.7 million tons of wheat were exported in the marketing season (July 2022 – January 2023), while 39.2 million tons of oilseeds, the ministry said.
It added that during 11 months of war 44.4 million tons of agricultural products were sent from Ukraine to other countries, including 9.9 million tons of wheat and 18.2 million tons of corn. Insignificant difference in the supply of these crops compared to the new marketing season is associated with the closure of Ukrainian ports, which did not function for five months, and in August they began to gradually increase the volume, said the Ministry of Agrarian Policy.
According to his data, sunflower oil remained in the top three leading shipments in January with 347 tons, which is 121 thousand tons less than in December.
January shipments of soybeans declined slightly compared to December – to 345 tons from 387 tons, meal to 295 tons from 331 tons.
At the same time sunflower seed supply was reduced more than 1.6 times – to 190 thousand tons from 312 thousand tons more, and rapeseed – nearly 1.3 times: to 186 thousand tons from 237 thousand tons compared to 412 thousand tons in November.
As Ministry of Agricultural Policy noted, barley shipments remained almost unchanged in January: 168.7 tons against 179 tons in December. During the first month of 2023 soybean oil shipped by 6 thousand tons more – 26 thousand tons.
“The overall picture of January shipments as a percentage is as follows: corn – 47.36%, 24.23% – wheat, 6.33% – sunflower oil, soybeans – 6.29%, 5.38% – meal, sunflower seeds – 3.46%, canola – 3.39%, barley – 3.08%, soybean oil – 0.49%,” indicated the Ministry.
It added that the total volume of shipments for 11 months by crops: 18.2 million. MT – corn (40.88%), 9.9 million tons – wheat (22.25%), 3.6 million tons – sunflower oil (8.12%), 3.2 million tons – rape (7.21%), 2.9 million tons – sunflower seeds (6.49%), 2.5 million tons – meal (5.65%), 1.9 million tons – barley (4.21%), 2 million tons – soybeans (4.70%), 215 thousand tons – soybean oil (0.49%). tons – soybean oil (0.48%).
As reported, Ukraine in 2021/2022 MY exported 48.51 million tons of grain and leguminous crops, which is 8.4% higher than in the previous MY, despite the full-scale invasion of Russia and the difficulties with the export of agricultural products due to the blockade of Ukrainian seaports. 18.74 million tons of wheat (12.6% more than in 2020/2021MY), 23.54 million tons of corn (+1.9%), 5.75 million tons of barley (+35.9%), 70.9 thousand tons of flour (-44.1%) were supplied to foreign markets.
Ukraine in 2020/2021 MY exported 44.72 million tons of grain and leguminous crops: 16.64 million tons of wheat, 23.08 million tons of corn, 4.23 million tons of barley, 126.9 thousand tons of flour and 18.4 thousand tons of rye.
In 2019/2020, Ukraine exported a record 56.72 million tons of grain and leguminous crops.
Prometey grain trader signed an export contract for the supply of 25,000 tons of food wheat from the Chornomorsk seaport in mid-September, the passage of the vessel became possible due to the deblockade of Ukrainian ports under the Istanbul grain agreements.
“In accordance with the contract, to load agricultural products, the bulk carrier will arrive in the territorial waters of Ukraine in 2-3 weeks. After the inspection, the dry cargo ship will follow from the port of Chornomorsk to its destination in mid-September,” the group of companies said in a press release on Monday.
“Prometey” emphasized that the conclusion of this contract gives the holding a reason to raise the minimum export bar at the level of 70-80 thousand tons of agricultural products per month.
The grain trader also clarified that it would take months to send a comparable amount of cargo by rail or road.
“This is already a victory on the front of global food security, in the structure of which Ukrainian grain trading companies play an important role. Another important component of the launch of the “grain corridor” is the trend towards improving the situation on the domestic agricultural market,” Prometey summed up in a press release. .
Prometey Group of Companies provides services for the storage, processing and logistics of grain and leguminous crops based on 33 elevators with a total storage capacity of 1.7 million tons.
At the end of 2021, the group of companies planned to receive $45 million in EBITDA, while in 2020 this figure reached $32.6 million, and in 2019 – $30.5 million.
The Turkish Ministry of Defense expects successful loading of grain on two more ships in the sea trade port “Chernomorsk”.
As reported on the ministry’s official Twitter page on Tuesday, the Liberian-flagged OCEAN LION vessel has already departed Chernomorsk with 64,720 tons of corn on board, destined for South Korea.
The ship under the Turkish flag RAHMİ YAĞCI is to deliver 5.3 thousand tons of sunflower meal in bulk from Chornomorsk to Istanbul.
The ministry also said that the inspection of four ships with Ukrainian grain awaiting inspection by the Joint Coordination Center (JCC) will also be carried out in the coming hours.
As reported, on July 22 in Istanbul, at the proposal of the UN, Ukraine, Turkey and UN Secretary-General António Guteres signed the Initiative for the safe transportation of grain and food from the Ukrainian ports of Odessa, Chornomorsk and Yuzhny.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan plans to hold telephone talks with Russian and Ukrainian Presidents Vladimir Putin and Vladimir Zelensky in the near future, Western media reported on Thursday.
“At the end of this week or early next, I plan to have telephone conversations on the issue of the grain corridor with both Putin and Zelensky,” Erdogan said during a press conference in Madrid.
He noted that Turkey seeks to “pursue a balanced policy, not a course based on confrontation.” Erdogan hopes for fruitful talks with both leaders.
