The price of food-grade wheat in Ukraine fell by $10 over the week—to $185 per metric ton on a CPT Odessa basis—while feed-grade wheat also dropped by $10, to $175 per metric ton, according to a weekly market review by the brokerage firm Spike Brokers.
“The global grain market ended the week with a further rise, but this trend did not carry over to Ukrainian basis prices,” the review noted.
Wheat exports from Ukraine during August 1–27 fell by half (-49.8%) compared to the same period last month—to 486,600 metric tons from 969,400 metric tons. The main destinations were Bangladesh—251,000 metric tons, Indonesia—243,500 metric tons, and Algeria—226,300 metric tons. These three countries accounted for about 74% of total exports of this product. Saudi Arabia and Yemen followed in terms of volume, with approximately 54,500 metric tons each.
The price of corn on a CPT Odessa basis fell by $5 to $185 per metric ton, while on an FCA Chop basis, it rose by $5 to $225 per metric ton.
Corn exports from August 1–27 totaled 190.7 thousand metric tons, which is 84.3% less than during the same period in July.
According to Spike Brokers, trading in next year’s corn crop is already active along the western border. During the week, October–December quotes on an FCA Zahony–Chop–Batyovo basis ranged from EUR188 to EUR191 per metric ton.
Brokers note that this trade route faces physical constraints on both sides of the border, particularly due to transshipment capacity in Ukraine and the EU, the availability of rail logistics, and the fleet of Euro-standard railcars.
From August 1 to 26, Ukraine exported 1.423 million metric tons of grains, oilseeds, and their processed products via alternative routes, which accounts for one-third of the volume required for this period, Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food Taras Vysotsky said at a briefing on Friday.
“From August 1 to 26, 1,423 thousand metric tons of grains, oilseeds, and products derived from them were exported. This accounts for 33% of the demand for this period. Grains accounted for the smallest share—822 thousand metric tons. For grains, we exported only 21% of the potential demand. The rest consists of oil, oilseeds, and meal. In principle, export volumes in these categories meet current demand,” he said.
Vysotsky noted that exports by rail and via the Danube each amounted to approximately 600,000 metric tons, while road transport remains the smallest in volume—about 80,000 metric tons. Of this volume, about 40,000 metric tons are oilseeds, which is due to the high cost of road transport.
According to him, if the current pace is maintained, Ukraine could export about 1.5 million metric tons of agricultural products via alternative routes by the end of August.
By the end of September, up to 2 million metric tons could be exported via alternative routes, as previously forecast by the Ministry of Agrarian Policy.
As of August 25, Ukrainian farmers had threshed 6.76 million hectares, or 58% of the projected area, and harvested 31.73 million metric tons of grain from the new crop, according to the press service of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food.
Wheat was harvested from 5 million hectares, yielding 24.61 million metric tons, with an average yield of 49.2 centners per hectare; barley was harvested from 1.46 million hectares, yielding 6.33 million metric tons, with an average yield of 43.4 centners per hectare. Peas were harvested from 297,000 hectares, yielding 786,900 metric tons, with a yield of 26.5 ts/ha.
Farmers in the Odesa, Kirovohrad, and Dnipropetrovsk regions currently lead in terms of the gross harvest volume of grain and legume crops.
In the Odesa region, 4.82 million metric tons were harvested from an area of 1.19 million hectares, specifically: 3.22 million metric tons of wheat, 1.31 million metric tons of barley, and 285,000 metric tons of peas.
In the Kirovohrad region, 2.42 million metric tons have been harvested from an area of 556,000 hectares: 1.92 million metric tons of wheat, 412,000 metric tons of barley, and 82,000 metric tons of peas.
In Dnipropetrovsk Oblast—2.63 million metric tons from an area of 634,000 hectares: wheat—2.02 million metric tons, barley—568,000 metric tons, and peas—37,000 metric tons.
The highest grain yields are currently recorded in the Khmelnytskyi (70.8 ts/ha), Sumy (60.1 ts/ha), and Vinnytsia (59.7 ts/ha) regions.
The rapeseed harvest is nearly complete—1.32 million hectares have been threshed, or 99% of the projected area, yielding 3.79 million metric tons of seed with an average yield of 28.6 centners per hectare.
In some regions, the harvest of buckwheat and millet has begun. For buckwheat, 0.65 thousand hectares have been threshed, yielding 0.9 thousand metric tons at a yield of 13.8 centners per hectare; for millet, 3.6 thousand hectares have been harvested, yielding 7.84 thousand metric tons at a yield of 21.8 centners per hectare.
Ukraine’s agricultural exports in August 2026 are expected to total approximately 1.33 million metric tons, which is 54% less than in July and could mark the lowest August figure since the full-scale war began, according to brokerage firm Spike Brokers.
“Expected August exports will be 68% lower than the average August export volume for 2022–2025—4.19 million metric tons—and 64% lower than the previous August low during the full-scale war—3.71 million metric tons in 2025,” the company noted.
According to the brokers, 641,900 metric tons of agricultural products were exported via all modes of transport in the first half of August, compared to 2.889 million metric tons for the entire month of July.
The share of maritime transport in total exports fell from 86.5% in July to 51.4% in the first 15 days of August, while the share of rail transport rose from 11.2% to 38.5%.
At the same time, the increase in the share of rail transport does not indicate a resumption of grain shipments: grain exports by rail fell by 68% compared to July and by 77% compared to the same period last year.
So far in August, 250,000 metric tons have been shipped by rail through western border crossings, which is 126% more than in the corresponding period of July, while shipments to the ports of Greater Odesa totaled only 53,200 metric tons—a decrease of 94.5%.
“The increase in land-based shipments offset only about 15% of the loss in seaport traffic; even when combined with the increase in exports via Izmail, the offset does not exceed 19%,” the report states.
The volume of grain railcars transported through western border crossings during the first 18 days of August increased 2.3-fold—to 160.6 railcars per day, compared to 71.3 railcars in July. The Romanian route had the highest volume—49.1 cars per day, followed by Poland—47.9 cars, Slovakia—34.8 cars, and Hungary—28.8 cars.
As of August 19, there were 9,524 thousand railcars en route to the border, which is 21% more than at the end of July; specifically, the number of grain railcars rose to 979 from 369.
The Izmail route is also increasing its shipments, but cannot compensate for the loss of maritime exports: grain exports via Izmail rose from 10 thousand to 38.8 thousand metric tons, while shipments to the ports of Greater Odesa fell by more than 0.9 million metric tons.
Poland needs new specialized terminals for transshipping Ukrainian grain, as existing storage capacity for large shipments is virtually exhausted, said Bartosz Penchkovsky, owner and CEO of the Polish logistics company Frontier Logistics.
“Right now, if we look across all of Poland, it effectively has no capacity to store large volumes of cargo—30,000 metric tons or more. All of this capacity is effectively occupied,” he said during the online discussion “Alternative Export Routes: Synergy Between Ukrainian and Polish Logistics Amid the Black Sea Blockade.”
According to him, in 2022–2023, Polish investors expanded the capacity of port and border terminals for transshipping Ukrainian cargo, which, in theory, could have facilitated the export of 6–8 million metric tons of goods per year. However, after the ports of Greater Odesa resumed operations in 2024–2025, a portion of Ukrainian cargo returned to the Black Sea ports, while Polish terminals shifted their focus to other types of cargo. In particular, Poland began receiving approximately 3–3.5 million metric tons of soybean meal from Latin America and other goods.
According to him, another “bottleneck” is access to specialized railcars for transporting grain.
Penchkovsky also noted that some border crossings have spare capacity, while others are overloaded.
He added that Poland’s logistics infrastructure has significant potential to increase the transshipment of Ukrainian agricultural products, provided there are investments in specialized terminals and more efficient use of existing border crossings.
From August 1 to 18, Ukraine exported 900,000 metric tons of agricultural products, which accounts for 31% of the volume that could have been exported had there been unimpeded access to logistics, said Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food Taras Vysotsky at a briefing in Kyiv on Thursday.
“The biggest drop was in grains. A total of 522,000 metric tons of grain were exported, which is only 20% of the required volume. Exports of oilseeds during this period totaled 163,000 metric tons, vegetable oil—128,000 metric tons, and meal—86,000 metric tons. In these sectors, export rates are in line with balance sheet figures,” Vysotsky noted.
According to him, alternative logistics routes can, in terms of volume, support the export of oilseeds and their processed products. As for grains, alternative routes can primarily be used to export products from border regions.
He added that due to changes in logistics, transportation costs have increased by approximately $50 per metric ton.
According to Vysotsky, exports of oilseeds and their processed products remain profitable, whereas for grains—with the exception of border regions—they are unprofitable.
Overall, via alternative routes from August 1 to 18, about 45% of agricultural products were exported via the Danube, 45% by rail, and another 7–8% by road.
As previously reported, according to data from the Ministry of Agrarian Policy, Ukraine exported 590,000 metric tons, or 30% of its needs, from August 1 to 12.
