On Sunday, October 9, some 13 ships with 230,700 tonnes of agricultural products for the countries of Africa, Asia and Europe left the ports of Odesa, Pivdenny and Chornomorsk, the Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine reported.
“Among them are the bulk carriers ARGONAUT, carrying 71,000 tonnes of wheat for Indonesia, the ALI A (7,000 tonnes of wheat for Lebanon) and the MEHMET BEY (8,000 tonnes of soybeans for Egypt),” the press service informs.
Since the start of the grain corridor operation, 305 ships have exported 6.8 million tonnes of Ukrainian food to the countries of Africa, Asia and Europe.
The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine allowed exporters to carry out fumigation or disinfection of grain cargo outside Ukraine from Ukrainian legal entities accredited by the State Food and Consumer Service or from foreign companies.
As reported on the website of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine on Wednesday, the resolution adopted by the government will help unblock the passage of sea vessels with agricultural products under the Istanbul grain agreements.
The document instructs the National Bank of Ukraine to ensure the transfer of funds to pay for grain cargo exporting companies for services related to fumigation and disinfection of grain outside Ukraine, and also regulates the remuneration of the commission agent for these operations.
The procedure for fumigation and disinfection of grain cargo outside Ukraine is published on the website of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy.
Ukraine in January-August 2022 exported 20.2 million tons of main grain crops, which is a quarter less than in the same period in 2021, while foreign exchange earnings from their supplies decreased by 18% to $5.22 billion.
In terms of crops, 15.1 million tons of corn for $3.8 billion, 4.1 million tons of wheat for $1.2 billion and 0.8 million tons of barley for $0.2 billion were sold abroad in eight months of 2022, according to the website National Research Center “Institute of Agrarian Economics” on Tuesday.
The leading position in the ranking of the main importers of Ukrainian grains was retained by China, whose share in the total grain exports over this period amounted to 14.4% ($749 million). Significant parts of Ukrainian grain exports also fell on Romania (13.9%), Turkey (9.6%), Egypt (7.7%), Spain (7.0%), Poland (6.8%), the Netherlands (4.3%), Iran (3.1%) and Hungary (3.0%).
Together, the above countries bring almost 70% of the income from all exports of grain crops from Ukraine.
As reported with reference to the Ukrainian Agrarian Business Club (UCAB) association, Ukraine exported 6.9 million tons of agricultural products in September 2022 (+ 52% compared to August 2022) due to the resumption of shipping with food cargo from the three Black Sea ports of the country to under the Istanbul Grain Agreements. In terms of crops, 4.4 million tons of grain crops were supplied to foreign markets, of which 2.16 million tons of corn, 1.8 million tons of wheat and 440 thousand tons of barley.
Earlier, the association reported that in August Ukraine exported 4.6 million tons of agricultural products, in July – 3.0 million tons, in June – 2.7 million tons. According to the Ministry of Agrarian Policy of Ukraine, in May agricultural exports amounted to 1.74 million tons, in April – 0.96 million tons, in March – 0.33 million tons.
Prior to the full-scale Russian military invasion, Ukraine exported an average of 5-6 million tons of agricultural products per month, mainly through its maritime infrastructure in the Black Sea.
From the beginning of the 2022/2023 marketing year (MY, began on July 1-2022) and until September 30, Ukraine exported 8.58 million tons of grain crops, of which 4.78 million tons of corn (55.7% of total supplies), 3, 0 million tons of wheat (35%) and 762 thousand tons of barley (8%).
As reported on the website of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food on Friday, since the beginning of the current marketing year, the rate of grain exports is 40.2% lower than the same period of the last marketing year (14.36 million tons were exported from July 1 to September 30, 2021).
According to the agency, from the beginning of 2022/2023 MY and until September 30, 2022, Ukraine exported 3 million tons of wheat (2.97 times less compared to the same date in 2021/2022 MY), 762 thousand tons of barley (4.96 times less), 3.4 thousand tons of rye (12.5 times less) and 23.9 thousand tons of flour (34.6% less). At the same time, the pace of corn exports exceeded last year’s volumes – 4.78 million tons were exported, which is 3.34 times higher than in 2021/2022 MY.
It is specified that in general, since the beginning of September, 4.28 million grains and leguminous crops have been exported, including 1.75 million tons of wheat, 2.08 million tons of corn, 432 thousand tons of barley, 11.8 thousand tons of flour and 3 .4 thousand tons of rye. In addition, the ministry announced the volume of exports for the last reporting period on September 26-30, during which 1.07 million tons of grain were sent abroad, including 398 thousand tons of wheat, 543 thousand tons of corn, 127 thousand tons of barley, 1.9 thousand tons of flour and 1.3 thousand tons of rye.
Thus, according to the data of the ministry, for four days on September 26-30, the record average daily volumes of grain since the beginning of the war were delivered to foreign markets – 267.5 thousand tons / day, while for the reporting period of September 21-26 – 126 thousand tons daily , for September 9-21 – an average of 132.5 thousand tons daily, August 31-September 9 – 147.8 thousand tons daily, and August 26-31 – 110 thousand tons / day. Thus, the average daily export rates over the past 4 days have jumped 2.12 times compared to the previous period on September 21-26 due to the intensification of transportation of agricultural products through the seaports of Ukraine.
As reported, in the 2021/2022 marketing year, Ukraine exported 48.51 million tons of grains and legumes, which is 8.4% higher than the previous marketing year, despite the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation and difficulties with the export of agricultural products due to the blockade of Ukrainian seaports. 18.74 million tons of wheat were delivered to foreign markets (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%).
In 2020/2021 MY, the country 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 MY, Ukraine exported 56.72 million tons of grain and leguminous crops.
JSC “Ukrzaliznytsia” (UZ) for the period September 1-21, 2022 exported a record 2.25 million tons of grain cargo since the beginning of Russian aggression, which is 40.5% more than in August (1.6 million tons), the deputy director said Department of commercial work of UZ Valery Tkachev.
“We have set another record for the transportation of goods for export – 2.25 million tons, and this is only for the 21st day of September. I think that by the end of the month we will be able to reach the figure of 2.5 million tons, maybe we will try to transport up to 3 million tons,” Tkachev said during an online meeting with industry participants on Thursday.
According to him, the company achieved such growth due to the increase in transportation of agricultural products to three Ukrainian seaports, unblocked under the Istanbul grain agreements.
At the same time, he clarified that 1,516 thousand tons of agricultural products were delivered to ports for further shipments to third countries (for the whole of August, almost half as much – 795 thousand tons), while 732 thousand tons of grain were transported through land border crossings on the western border (in August – 805 thousand tons, -9%).
According to him, since the beginning of September, Ukrzaliznytsia has loaded a total of 1.89 million tons of grain cargo into wagons (for the whole of August – 1.74 million tons), which is 27.5% of the total loaded volume for this month of 6.32 million tons (9.28 million tons were shipped for export in August).
The representative of UZ also clarified that for September 1-21, the average daily loading of the company’s wagons amounted to about 90 thousand tons (in August – 56 thousand tons), reaching a record since the beginning of Russian aggression. So, on September 20, a record 122 thousand tons of agricultural products were loaded into the cars, on September 21 – 101.4 thousand tons, on September 19 – 112.8 thousand tons, on September 18 – 83.2 thousand tons.
“Now the loading through the network has also grown significantly, in recent days we have been loading more than 100 thousand tons per day. That is, the loading through the network is growing, and this is all thanks to the opening of our grain corridor,” the deputy director emphasized during the meeting.
Over the 21st day of September, Ukrzaliznytsia also exported 89.7 thousand tons of sunflower oil, as well as 132.7 thousand tons of all kinds of meal, through land border crossings and ports.
Tkachev clarified that over the specified period, the average daily handling of wagons of all types at border crossings sank by 6% – to 1,731 thousand wagons compared to 1,848 thousand wagons on average in August, while the transfer of grain wagons amounted to 536 wagons per day, which 14% more than the average for August (469 grain wagons per day).
According to him, the most intensive movement of wagons occurs through the Izov border crossing – 157 wagons / day, Batevo – 80 wagons / day, Yagodin – 48 wagons / day, Vadul-Siret – 47 wagons / day.
The UZ representative clarified that by September 21, the total queue of wagons of all nomenclatures at the border had decreased by 24% (or by 6.64 thousand wagons) compared to September 1, to 18.96 thousand units. from 25.12 thousand units At the same time, by September 21, there were 4.78 thousand grain wagons in the queue, while on September 1 this figure was 8.48 thousand wagons with grain (-44%, or by 3.69 thousand wagons).
Tkachev noted that the queue for the delivery of grain cargo, if you look at the availability of wagons and the daily delivery, is about nine days of waiting.
“At the same time, it is clear that we have crossings where the situation is more difficult, where you have to stand for 20 days, and there are places where there is no queue. In general, we have a queue of 9 days for the presence of a wagon fleet,” the UZ representative specified.
He also stressed that after the reorientation in early September of the main flow of grain cargo in the direction of Ukrainian seaports, UZ had the opportunity to additionally receive grain cargo for export through land border crossings on the western borders of Ukraine.
The Joint Coordinating Center (JCC) has authorized the movement of more than 400 vessels during its work within the framework of the Black Sea Grain Initiative, the UN reported.
“As of September 23, the total tonnage of grain and other agricultural products exported from three Ukrainian ports is 4,556,311 tons. In total, 420 ships have been allowed to move at the moment – 217 for arrival in Ukrainian ports and 203 for leaving them,” – the message says.
It is noted that on September 23, 12 ships with more than 200 thousand tons of food left Ukrainian ports after receiving permission from the SKC.
The UN explained that five ships – Zeko Y (8.2 thousand tons of wheat), Olma (5150 tons of soybeans), Merry M (4450 tons of sunflower meal), Gudena (3860 tons of sunflower oil), Nil Demir (3, 7 thousand tons of peas) – went to Turkey.
In addition, the Sea Dove (33 thousand tons of corn) and Lady Ayana (27 thousand tons of corn) ships sailed for Italy, the Fortuna dry cargo ship (10,252 tons of sunflower meal) – for France, the Gem Star ship (31,039 tons of corn) – to the Netherlands.
Dry cargo ship Mo Gan Shan (57,311 tons of wheat) was poisoned in Bangladesh, the ship Mavka (11,950 tons of sunflower oil) – in Romania, Tzarevich (10 thousand tons of sunflower meal) – in Bulgaria.
On July 22, in Istanbul, with the participation of the UN, Ukraine, Turkey and Russia, a document was signed on the creation of a corridor for the export of grain from three Ukrainian ports – Chornomorsk, Odessa and Pivdenny.
