The group of companies, A.G.R. Group, of businessman Misak Khidiryan, with the start of a full-scale Russian invasion, reoriented logistics routes from Ukrainian seaports to the EU market through road and rail transport, as well as the river ports of Reni and Izmail.
As a representative of the grain trading department told Interfax-Ukraine, the company would continue to export part of its agricultural products through land border crossings with the EU and along the Danube River even after the occupied territories are liberated from Russian troops and Ukraine resumes full-fledged trade in the Black Sea.
According to him, after the start of the war, A.G.R. Group began searching for elevator capacities in the west of Ukraine and transporting crop stocks there from the central regions of the country. Later, A.G.R. Group established road and rail logistics channels for the selling of agricultural products in the EU, and also agreed to cooperate with a European trading company with a fairly strong infrastructure throughout Europe and begun to supply agricultural products to it.
“In addition, we agreed that we would work together to load their volumes and gave guarantees that after our victory and the liberation of the occupied territories, we will maintain our partnerships, even when ports open and maritime logistics again become a priority. Perhaps even consider with the board purchase of new clusters in western Ukraine for a more convenient partnership,” the representative of the holding told the agency.
According to him, at the moment, deep-water seaports are not available to the holding for export, so it uses road and rail transport, as well as the ports of Reni and Izmail. However, such logistics is much more expensive than maritime exports, and is also associated with a number of difficulties, such as the inability to leave Ukraine for drivers – its citizens, or long queues of ships in ports.
However, A.G.R. Group, in addition to the European direction, stepped up its activities in several countries of the Middle East – in Egypt and Turkey, where the company opened its representative offices.
“Our offices are operating there and domestic sales are running at maximum, as we need additional margin due to high logistics costs. We must clearly understand that the logistics leverage has increased, freight prices have increased, energy and fuel prices have risen, as a result of which we spend about $200 per tonne of exports, $200 on our product is a lot of money, we used to spend $45-50 per tonne,” the source said.
In the agricultural holding A.G.R. Group includes 20 companies. The main direction of its activity is the trade in agricultural products, the cultivation and storage of grain crops, as well as animal husbandry.
A.G.R. Group cultivates land in Poltava, Kyiv, Chernihiv and Sumy regions. All grown products are sold on foreign markets.
The holding’s president and head of its supervisory board is businessman Misak Khidiryan.
Germany will provide an additional 15 million euros for grain supplies from Ukraine under the World Food Program, German Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz said, speaking via video link at the .summit on food security in Kiev.
“As we speak, the World Food Program ship sponsored by Germany is on its way to Ethiopia with Ukrainian grain,” he said.
Scholz stressed that “hunger should never be used as a weapon. That is why we cannot tolerate what we are seeing today.”
“We know that by targeting agricultural infrastructure in Ukraine and blockading the Black Sea ports for months, Russia has only made the world’s food situation worse,” he said.
“We have come together to send a clear message – we do not accept Russia’s cynical war. That’s why we are happy to take part in the Graine from Ukraine program,” he said.
The Ukrainian Grain Association (UGA) increased the forecast for the harvest of grain and oilseeds in Ukraine in 2022 by 4.4% compared to the August forecast, to 67.5 million tonnes from 64.5 million tonnes, according to the UGA website on Wednesday.
This change in forecasts is due to an increase in the area where the crop will be harvested, as well as an improvement in the average yield from 3.57 tonnes/ha to 3.64 tonnes/ha.
According to it, the total export of grain and oilseeds from Ukraine in the 2022/2023 marketing year (MY, July-June) can reach 47.5 million tonnes (in the forecast for August, 31% less – 32.8 million tonnes), provided that marine grain corridors are operational until the end of the marketing year. At the same time, the transitional balances of agricultural products in the country at the beginning of 2022/2023 MY amounted to 26 million tonnes of grain and oilseeds, and by the end of the MY they are estimated at 19.2 million tonnes (in the forecast for August, 37% more – 30.5 million tonnes).
“In general, export of grain and oilseeds in 2022/2023 MY can be expected at the indicated level if the Ukrainian Black Sea ports continue to operate until the end of the season. Exporting grain through Ukrainian ports and ensuring the safety of navigation in the Black Sea is the only way to quickly and efficiently supply Ukrainian grain to countries that are in dire need of it,” the organization said in a statement.
According to UGA forecasts, in 2022, a wheat harvest is expected at the level of 19.3 million tonnes (1.5% more compared to the August forecast); 24 million tonnes of corn (forecast kept); 5.6 million tonnes of barley (3.7% more); 10 million tonnes of sunflower (11% more); 3.6 million tonnes of soybeans (1.6 times more); and 3.15 million tonnes of rapeseed (5% more).
In the November forecast, the association raised its export forecasts compared to August ones – for example, wheat exports in 2022/2023 MY are expected at the level of 13 million tonnes (33% more), corn – 20 million tonnes (a 2-fold increase), barley – 2 million tonnes (forecast is kept), sunflower – 6 million tonnes (forecast is kept), soybean – 3.5 million tonnes (an increase of 2 times), and rapeseed – 2.8 million tonnes (forecast is kept).
“We estimate the preliminary forecast for the harvest of grain and oilseeds for the next 2023 at the level of 53.2 million tonnes, and export at the level of 39.7 million tonnes. Everything will depend on the conditions under which Ukrainian farmers will be able to carry out spring sowing, and subsequently harvest crops,” the UGA said in the statement.
For 2 days 9 vessels with 162 thousand tons of agricultural products for the countries of Africa, Asia and Europe departed from Big Odessa ports, the Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine informs.
“In particular, the bulk carrier BOZBURUN – M with 40 thousand tons of wheat for Ethiopia departed today. This is already the eighth vessel chartered by the UN World Food Programme as part of the assistance to countries in Africa and Asia,” the Telegram channel said.
In the ports of Greater Odessa under the processing of 26 ships. They are loaded with 1 million tons of Ukrainian agricultural products.
Since August 1, 475 ships left the ports of Big Odessa, which exported 11.2 million tons of Ukrainian food products to Asia, Europe and Africa.
The United States, through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), is providing up to $20 million to the Grain from Ukraine initiative announced by President Vladimir Zelensky at the G20 Summit earlier this week to help feed people around the world, USAID said in a release Friday.
“USAID will provide support through the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) to facilitate the delivery of additional shipments of Ukrainian grain through the Black Sea Grain Initiative,” the release said.
The U.S. agency recalls that before Putin’s invasion, Ukraine was one of WFP’s largest grain suppliers and the fourth largest commercial exporter of wheat in the world.
Today’s announcement builds on WFP’s existing $173 million support to date to buy Ukrainian grain to feed people in countries facing the most severe food crises, including Ethiopia, Yemen, and Afghanistan. Thanks to U.S. funding, 210,000 tons of food was purchased, enough to feed an estimated 12.6 million people for one month.
All told, since the start of Putin’s war against Ukraine in February, the U.S. has provided more than $11 billion to combat the global food crisis, including nearly $8.6 billion in humanitarian aid, the release indicated.
According to it, USAID also continues to help Ukrainian farmers who risk their lives to feed the world through the Agricultural Sustainability Initiative-Ukraine (AGRI-Ukraine). The initiative focuses on four areas that are critical to supporting Ukraine’s agricultural exports and its contribution to global food security: providing critical resources for farmers; improving export logistics and infrastructure; improving farmers’ access to finance; and addressing the needs of drying, storing, and processing crops. USAID has invested $100 million in the initiative, and the agency seeks to raise at least $150 million in additional funding from other donors, foundations and the private sector.
Ukraine has exported 15.95 million tons of grain crops since the beginning of the 2022/2023 marketing year (MY, July-June) and through November 18, including 8.44 million tons of corn (52.9% of total supplies), 6.14 million tons of wheat (38.5%) and 1.31 million tons of barley (8.2%).
As reported on the website of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food on Friday, the rate of grain exports since the beginning of this MY is 31.2% lower than the same period last MY (from July 1, 2020 to November 18, 2021, 23.2 million tons were delivered abroad), although back on November 14 lag was minimal for the past few months at 30.6%.
According to the Ministry, from the beginning of 2022/2023 MY and until November 18, 2022, Ukraine exported 6.14 million tons of wheat (2.23 times less than the same period a year earlier), 1.31 million tons of barley (3.72 times less), 11.2 thousand tons of rye (6.8 times less) and 47.6 thousand tons of flour (1.4% less). At the same time, the rate of corn exports exceeded last year’s volume: 8.44 million tons were exported, which is 1.95 times higher than in 2021/2022 MY on the same date.
It is specified that since the beginning of November, Ukraine exported 2.75 million tons of grain crops, including 1.14 million tons of wheat, 1.39 million tons of corn, 199 thousand tons of barley, 5 thousand tons of rye and 9.2 tons of flour.
As follows from the Ministry data, during the last reporting period, November 14-18, 212.5 thousand tons of grain were supplied to the foreign markets on average per day, while during the preceding period of November 7-14 – 118.6 thousand tons per day, November 2-7 – 178 thousand tons per day, October 26-November 2 – 170 thousand tons per day, and October 21-26 – 132 thousand tons per day. Thus, the average daily rate of exports during the reporting period of November 14-18 has increased by 1.8 times compared to the previous period of November 7-14.
As reported, Ukraine exported 48.51 million tons of grains and leguminous crops in 2021/2022 MY, which is 8.4% higher than during 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.
In 2020/2021 MY, the country exported 44.72 million tons of cereals and legumes: 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 56.72 million tons of grain and leguminous crops.
