In 2023, Ukrzaliznytsia JSC transported 30.58 million tons of grain cargo, up 5.9%, or 1.708 million tons, from a year earlier, said Valery Tkachev, deputy director of the commercial work department of UZ, at a meeting with agricultural market participants on Thursday.
According to him, 22.729 mln tons of grain crops were transported for export by rail, which is 178 thsd tonnes more than in 2022. Of these, 14.324 mln tonnes (-4.9%) were shipped to the ports, and 8 mln 405 thsd tonnes (+12.2%) – to the western border crossings.
“Before the embargo on imports of Ukrainian grain by neighboring countries was imposed in April, 900 thsd tonnes to 1 mln tonnes of grain were transported by rail per month. After the ban was imposed, the volume was almost halved. The work of ports in 2023 was significantly affected by the uncertainty of the “grain corridor”, Tkachev stated.
As reported, Ukrzaliznytsia transported 63 million tons of cargo for export in 2023.
Over 10 days in January, Ukrzaliznytsia JSC (UZ) reached an average daily load of 99.5 thousand tons, which is 37.3% more than in December, said Valery Tkachev, deputy director of UZ’s Commercial Department, at a meeting with agricultural market participants on Thursday.
“I hope that these figures will be maintained, and this will allow us to transport more than 3 million tons of grain per month,” Tkachev said.
He specified that on January 1, UZ loaded 24 thousand tons of grain, on January 2 – 63 thousand tons, but starting from January 3, this figure reached 105-123 thousand tons per day.
According to him, the share of grain cargo in the total network load is growing and has already reached 26%.
According to Mr. Tkachev, over 10 days of January, UZ transported 991.3 thousand tons of grain cargo in export traffic, including 196.9 thousand tons towards the western borders and 794.4 thousand tons towards the ports of Greater Odesa.
He noted that Chornomorsk became the leader among the ports with 257.2 thousand tons, followed by Odesa with 249.1 thousand tons and TIS in Pivdennyi with 93.4 thousand tons.
At the same time, according to Tkachev, on the western border, Yagodyn received the most grain cargo – 41.8 thousand tons of grain, followed by Vadul Siret with 36.2 thousand tons and Chop with 33.1 thousand tons.
Mr. Tkachev noted that Poland averages 85.6 railcars per day, including 51 railcars through the Yagodyn-Dorogusk crossing, 23.7 railcars through Mostyska-Medyka, and 11 railcars through Izov-Khrubeshuv.
“Over the past week, the average daily rate of railcar transfer at the Polish border increased by 10 cars per day, which is an increase of more than 13%,” Tkachev added.
According to him, Romania receives about 100 railcars with grain daily, and over the past week this figure has deteriorated by 14 w/d, or 12.3%. The Vadul-Siret crossing is followed by 66.2 v/d, Dyakove – 2.5 v/d and Reni – 31 v/d.
He clarified that Hungary averages 45.5 cars per day, and over the past week the figure has improved by 4.5 v/d, or 11%, while Slovakia – 59.3 v/d with an increase of 5.6 v/d, or 10.5% over the past week.
Tkachev emphasized that if we take oilcake and grain, the average daily transfer across all crossings is 385 v/d. Over the past week, this figure has increased by 15 vdpd, or 4%.
DTEK Group’s trading company D.Trading, which operates in the electricity, gas and coal markets, is launching grain trading, said Dmitry Malyar, CEO of the company.
“The first deal concluded on the domestic market opens a new page in the company’s history. The first thousand tons have been shipped to a customer. This is the company’s first practical step in a new trading direction,” Malyar wrote on Facebook on Tuesday.
He clarified that D.Trading’s agricultural office is already operating in Odesa.
“We will provide new market opportunities for agricultural producers and work on developing export potential,” Malyar said.
This year, Ukrainian agrarians grew 81 million tons of gross grain harvest, which is 5-6% of global production, said Mykola Gorbachev, President of the Ukrainian Grain Association (UGA).
“Ukraine is located on such soils that we depend on weather factors more than on technology. Although technologies in Ukraine have advanced over the past 20-30 years, and we have grown 100 million tons of grain, which we used to grow 30 million tons. This year, we were lucky with the weather – yields for all crops were above average. We got a record yield for each of the crops,” he said at the Business Breakfast with Forbes Ukraine on Wednesday.
According to the UGA president, this allowed the country to compensate for the loss of 6 million hectares of arable land that is currently under occupation and on the front line and is not cultivated by farmers.
“The world produces more than 2.5 billion tons of grain, of which Ukraine has grown more than 80 million tons this year. If we look at grain trade in absolute terms, Ukraine accounts for about 5-6%. This is a serious impact (on the global market – IF-U),” Gorbachev emphasized, adding that this share of grain production does not allow Ukraine to control the global market.
He reminded that farmers do not depend on the volume of production, but on the prices for it, and expressed hope that the 2023-2024 marketing year will allow for further equalization of world prices and Ukrainian farmers will not be at a loss.
As reported, this season winter wheat plantings amounted to 4166 thou hectares (-834 thou hectares compared to the previous season), winter barley – 536 thou hectares (-255 thou hectares), and rapeseed – 1374 thou hectares (+110 thou hectares).
According to the adjusted forecast of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy, in 2023, farmers will be able to harvest 79.1 mln tons of grains and oilseeds, including 57.5 mln tons of grains and 21.6 mln tons of oilseeds.
On November 3 this year, the UGA updated its estimate of the potential harvest in 2023, increasing it to 81.6 mln tonnes of grains and oilseeds, which is 10.6% more than in 2022, when 73.8 mln tonnes were harvested.
Slovakia will extend the embargo on imports of Ukrainian grain from January 1, 2024 for an indefinite period, and will also expand the list of Ukrainian agricultural products for which access to the country’s domestic market will be closed, EFE reports.
According to the agency, which cites a statement by the Slovak Ministry of Agriculture, the embargo on the import of Ukrainian goods – wheat, corn, beets and sunflower seeds – to Slovakia expires at the end of this year. Bratislava has decided to maintain these restrictions.
In addition, the government has decided to expand the list of Ukrainian products that will also be subject to an import ban starting January 1, 2024, including barley, wheat flour, cane sugar, malt, soybeans, honey, and some other products.
All products subject to the restrictions can cross the country’s border only in sealed transit. The purpose of these measures is to protect local agricultural producers.
In January-October 2023, Ukrzaliznytsia JSC (UZ) increased the volume of grain and milling products transportation by 5.8%, or 1.32 mln tonnes compared to the same period of 2022, to 24.26 mln tonnes, according to the UZ report.
According to the document, 17.55 mln tons of grain and milled products were transported in export traffic in 10 months, which is 0.7% or 129 thsd tonnes less compared to the same period of 2022.
In total, 10.46 mln tons of grain cargo were transported by rail to ports in 10 months, which is 15% less than in the same period of 2022. At the same time, the volume of transportation in the direction of border crossings amounted to 7.09 mln tonnes (31% more).
The volumes of grain cargo transportation to ports have been growing since August, due to the launch of the temporary sea corridor to the ports of Greater Odesa, UZ said.
It is specified that in October, the share of grain transportation towards ports amounted to 56.8%.
Earlier it was reported that 151 vessels have used the Ukrainian sea corridor established by the Ukrainian Navy since August 10, 2023, 121 of which have already used it with 4.4 mln tons of export cargo.
According to the forecast of Yuriy Vaskov, Deputy Minister of Communities, Territories and Infrastructure Development, if the sea corridor is fully operational, more than 50% of export shipments in 2024 will be carried out by sea.
