The harvest of grains and oilseeds in the 2021/2020 marketing year may exceed 100 million tonnes, Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food Roman Leshchenko said on Monday.
“If the amount of precipitation is at the same level as we see in May, then there will be an increase in soybeans as well,” the minister told Interfax-Ukraine.
According to him, the timely implementation of the complex of spring field work by the farmers makes it possible to assess the volume of the harvest in the current season with “healthy optimism.”
“We have all the prerequisites for setting an absolute record this year – the harvest of grain and oilseeds [at the level of] 100 million tonnes,” he said at a press conference in Kyiv.
As reported, the Ukrainian Grain Association (UGA) estimated the growth of the potential harvest of grains and oilseeds in the 2021/2022 marketing year by 14.5% compared to 2020/21, to 96.25 million tonnes thanks to good wintering of winter crops and favorable weather conditions.
Ukraine since the beginning of the 2020/2021 marketing year (MY, July-June) and as of May 7, 2021 had exported 39.24 million tonnes of grain and legumes, which is 23.6% less than on the same date of the previous MY.
According to the information and analytical portal of the agro-industrial complex of Ukraine, 15.14 million tonnes of wheat, 19.36 million tonnes of corn, 4.12 million tonnes of barley have been exported to date.
As of the indicated date, 107,000 tonnes of flour were also exported.
According to the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food, Ukraine exported 56.72 million tonnes of grain and leguminous crops in the 2019/2020 MY.
As reported, the Ministry of Economic Development, Trade and Agriculture of Ukraine in February predicted a decline in exports of grains and legumes in the 2020/2021 MY by 20.5% compared to the previous MY, to 45.4 million tonnes.
Kernel, one of the largest Ukrainian agrarian groups, in the third quarter of fiscal year 2021 (FY, began in July 2020), reduced sales of sunflower oil by 2% compared to the same period in the previous FY, to 371,920 tonnes.
According to a report posted on the company’s website on Friday, the share of bottled oil of total sales was 10% (37,000 tonnes).
Kernel processed 902,000 tonnes of oilseeds in Q3 FY2021, down 4% y-o-y due to the low harvest of sunflower seeds in Ukraine this season.
According to the report, grain export volume from Ukraine in January-March 2021 dropped 15% y-o-y, to 1.8 million tonnes, of which 1.3 million tonnes had been originated from external suppliers and the remaining had been produced by company’s farming division. Slowdown in the grain export volume was caused mostly by a substantial grain harvest reduction this season in Ukraine (including company’s farming operations) and the respective decline of the exportable grain surplus for the country.
The company’s export terminal throughput volume in Ukraine increased to 2.1 million tonnes in Q3 FY2021, up 6% y-o-y. Transshipment volume exceeded the grain export volume from Ukraine, as the company substantially increased the scale of sunflower meal transshipment operations on its terminals in Chornomorsk, with such goods being exported through third-party terminals before.
The holding cut grain and oilseeds received in inland silos by 12% in Q3 FY2021, to 109,021 tonnes.
The Ukrainian Agrarian Confederation and the working committee of China’s Association of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises signed a memorandum of cooperation for the development of bilateral cooperation in the agricultural sector, the Ukrainian Grain Association (UGA) reported on its website on Tuesday, which also joined the signing of this document.
“Today, in the current grain season, Ukraine has exported to China about 10 million tonnes of grain, potentially could increase the export rate by 2-3 times over time. The bulk of grain exports to China accounts for corn and barley. And it is necessary to sign the appropriate interstate phytosanitary protocols to open the Chinese market for Ukrainian wheat, sorghum, peas and other crops,” the press service said, citing President of the Ukrainian Grain Association Mykola Horbachev.
According to the association, the parties will jointly create a Chinese-Ukrainian Council for International Cooperation in Agriculture, in particular for the development of modern agricultural trade and industrial park projects.
Ukraine since the beginning of the 2020/2021 agricultural year (July-June) as of April 7, 2021 exported 36.07 million tonnes of cereals and legumes, which is 22.8% less than on the same date of the previous agri-year.
According to the information and analytical portal of the agro-industrial complex of Ukraine, to date, 14.46 million tonnes of wheat, 16.90 million tonnes of corn, and 4.11 million tonnes of barley have been exported.
As of the indicated date, 97,400 tonnes of flour were also exported.
According to the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food, Ukraine exported 56.72 million tonnes of grain and leguminous crops in 2019/2020 agri-year.
Ukraine can multiply the production and export of grain, while their industrial processing can increase by no more than 2 million tonnes per year, President of the Ukrainian Grain Association (UGA) Mykola Horbachev said at an online conference on Tuesday.
“The cries about the need to process more inside the country are groundless. It is necessary to create a good raw material base that will show the whole world: if it is profitable to export, then investors will come and build processing plants themselves,” he said.
According to Horbachev, Ukraine could reduce its need for gasoline, which exports 4 million tonnes annually, by adding up to 20% of bioethanol produced from corn.
The president of UGA cited calculations according to which 0.38 tonnes of ethanol can be produced from 1 tonne of corn. Accordingly, to provide the required 800,000 tonnes of ethanol in the form of an additive to gasoline, Ukraine will process about 2 million tonnes of corn.
In addition, Horbachev said that over 20 years Ukraine has increased its corn production 10 times, while this figure is not the limit, since most agricultural producers grow 6-7 tonnes per hectare. He said that there are farms in the country that grow corn using the correct technological processes, equipment and seeds getting 12-14 tonnes per hectare.
“We grow three times more than we are able to consume. We export two-thirds. If we boost our production potential, we will export more and more in percentage,” he said.
According to Horbachev, if Ukraine does not increase grain exports, there will be other suppliers on the global market, and the country will lag behind not only in aircraft and rocket manufacturing, but also in agriculture.
“Traders perform one of the most important functions – they take excess grain that cannot be consumed here in Ukraine from the market,” he said.
