Ukraine’s revenue from export of grain crops in 2021 amounted to $12.3 billion, the largest trading partners were China, which imported $2.55 billion, as well as Egypt ($1.39 billion) and Turkey ($0.92 billion), the Institute of Agrarian Economics (IAE) reported on its website on Thursday.
“2021 was characterized by the further strengthening of the position of China, which in 2020 for the first time took the top among 10 largest importers of Ukrainian grain. In four years, starting from 2018, this country has increased its grain purchases from Ukraine almost five times, to $2.55 billion. At the same time, China’s share in the value of domestic grain exports increased from 19.7% in 2020 to 20.7% in 2021,” the IAE said, citing expert Bohdan Dukhnitsky.
According to the IAE, last year Egypt increased imports of Ukrainian grains by 24%, from $1.12 billion to $1.37 billion, but its share of their total exports decreased from 11.9% to 11.2%.
“Turkey, which in 2020 ranked only sixth in the top 10, moved up to the third spot last year, increasing the value of purchases of Ukrainian grain to $0.92 billion. In addition, in 2021, there were changes in the top 10 largest buyers of grain from Ukraine: Iran and Pakistan pushed South Korea and Bangladesh out of the top 10,” the expert said in the IAE report.
Other major grain importers from Ukraine were Indonesia with $750 million, Spain with $645 million, the Netherlands with $552 million, Iran with $533 million, Pakistan with $355 million, Libya with $342 million and Tunisia with $306 million.
The IAE said that in total, these 10 countries had dominated in the value of all grain purchases in Ukraine in 2021 (their share was more than two thirds).
As reported, since the beginning of 2021/22 (July-June) and as of February 2, Ukraine exported 38.63 million tonnes of grain and leguminous crops (31.6% more compared to the same date of the previous year), including 17.08 million tonnes of wheat (30.4% more), 15.64 million tonnes of corn (32.6% more), 5.48 million tonnes of barley (38.7% more), 0.16 million tons rye (92 times more), 63,800 tonnes of flour (27.0% less).
Mariupol seaport (Donetsk region) on December 30 put into operation a laboratory to control the quality of transshipped grain crops, its launch became one of the stages of construction of a grain terminal in the port, the first stage of which should begin work in 2022 and will allow transshipment of up to 1 million tonnes of agricultural crops per year, according to the website of the state-owned enterprise.
“The management of Mariupol seaport expects to attract to the new terminal part of the export grain flows from the eastern and central regions of Ukraine next year. Negotiations with large agricultural companies are ongoing,” the company said in a statement.
The commissioned laboratory is certified in accordance with the requirements of international standard ISO 10012: 2005. The laboratory is capable of analyzing samples of wheat, barley, corn, peas, sorghum and oats.
As reported, the state-owned enterprise Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority (USPA), the agricultural exporter Cofco Agri Resources Ukraine, the state-owned enterprise Mariupol seaport and STT LLC signed a memorandum of cooperation on the development of the port of Mariupol in October 2019.
The memorandum provides for the implementation of an infrastructure project in the port of Mariupol, which will attract a total of more than UAH 1.3 billion of investments in infrastructure development and will increase cargo traffic through it by 2.3 million tonnes.
Within the framework of this document, it is planned to reconstruct two berths, a grain terminal and create a single transshipment complex for food and liquid food cargo.
Ukraine since the beginning of this season and as of November 25, 2021 has threshed 79.73 million tonnes (3.06 million tonnes more per week, November 18 through November 25) of the main grain and leguminous crops from an area of 15.19 million hectares, according to a report on the website of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food on Friday.According to the ministry, the harvesting of grains and legumes has been completed in five regions: Dnipropetrovsk (4.81 million tonnes in total), Mykolaiv (3.79 million tonnes), Kherson (3.51 million tonnes), Donetsk (2.27 million tonnes) and Ivano-Frankivsk (0.93 million tonnes) region.At the same time, the leaders in harvesting were Vinnytsia with an indicator of 6.21 million tonnes, Poltava (5.57 million tonnes), Chernihiv (5.43 million tonnes), Odesa (5.13 million tonnes), Kharkiv (4.87 million tonnes), Dnipropetrovsk (4.81 million tonnes) and Cherkasy (4.31 million) regions.In total, 102.23 million tonnes (3.48 million tonnes more per week) of major cereals, legumes, oilseeds (as well as sugar beets dug out) have been harvested this season from a total area of 23.97 million hectares.As the ministry said, 35.07 million tonnes of corn from 4.78 million hectares (87% of the forecast) were harvested as of the indicated date.In addition, 16.17 million tonnes of sunflower (0.38 million tonnes more) were harvested from 6.47 million hectares (99% of the forecast).Farmers of Ukraine also dug up 10.53 million tonnes (0.28 million tonnes more) of sugar beet from 222,700 hectares (98% of the forecast).The ministry marked the end of the harvesting of buckwheat – 110,000 tonnes from 84,200 hectares.The Ministry of Agrarian Policy also reminded of the end of the harvesting of rapeseed, of which 2.91 million tonnes were harvested from an area of 1.01 million hectares, 182,800 tonnes millet were harvested from 77,600 hectares. In addition, the soybean harvest amounted to 3.42 million tonnes on 1.28 million hectares.The average yield of wheat as of November 25 was 4.62 tonnes per ha, barley – 3.91 tonnes per ha, corn – 7.325 tonnes per ha, sunflower – 2.497 tonnes per ha, soybeans – 2.673 tonnes per ha, rapeseed – 2.86 tonnes per ha, sugar beet – 47.29 tonnes per ha, peas – 2.419 tonnes per ha, buckwheat – 1.301 tonnes per ha, millet – 2.45 tonnes per ha.
Ukraine since the beginning of the 2021/2022 marketing year (MY, July-June) and as of October 29, exported 19.05 million tonnes of grain and leguminous crops, which is 19.3% more than the indicators for the same date of the previous year.
According to the information and analytical portal of the agro-industrial complex of Ukraine, to date, 12.18 million tonnes of wheat have been exported (17.9% more compared to the same date 2020/2021 MY). Taking into account the restrictions on its export at the level of 25.3 million tonnes, introduced on October 19 by the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food, Ukrainian exporters can supply another 13.12 million tonnes of wheat to foreign markets (51.9% of the established limit).
In addition, during the specified period, Ukraine exported 4.36 million tonnes of barley (29.7% more than at the same date in 2020/2021 MY), 2.26 million tonnes of corn (1.8% more) and 42,900 tonnes of flour (30.5% less).
As of the indicated date, 55,000 tonnes of rye were also exported, which is 32 times more than the indicators of the last year.
Prometey group of companies in 2020 increased its EBITDA by 6.8% compared to 2019 – up to $32.6 million, according to the results of its financial audit conducted by the international company KPMG posted on the grain trader’s website.
At the same time, the company does not provide data on the profit/loss received in the past year.
Prometey in 2020 also increased its revenue by 14.8% compared to 2019 – to $254.2 million. Its assets as of December 31, 2020 amounted to $199.3 million.
“It is noted that Prometey group of companies in 2020 entered the top five (in Ukraine, 1.7 million tonnes of one-time storage) in terms of elevator capacities. In the last marketing year, the group also confirmed its title of one of the leaders in the agricultural sector, selling about 1 million tonnes of grains and oilseeds,” the grain trader said.
Prometey provides services for the storage, processing and logistics of grain and leguminous crops on the basis of 29 elevators in Mykolaiv, Kirovohrad, Kyiv, Khmelnytsky, Zaporizhia, Sumy, Odesa, Kherson and Dnipropetrovsk regions.
In 2021, Prometey Group plans to receive $45 million in EBITDA.
The administration of Pivdenny seaport (Odesa region) has revised the discount applied to port dues for ships that enter the port to carry out cargo operations with grain cargo.
According to the website of the Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority (USPA), from January 1, 2022, for ships that call at the seaport to carry out operations for loading or unloading general and bulk grain cargo, a 30% discount will be applied to the rates of all types of port dues that are levied in favor of the USPA.
This decision was made in accordance with the order of the port administration under No. 195/27 dated October 13, 2021.
“Grain cargo refers to cereals, legumes, oilseeds used for food, seed, fodder and technical purposes, as well as products of their processing,” the report says.
A 30% discount will be applied if the following criteria are met: loading and unloading grain cargo; bulk and general (bags and big bags) grain cargo; carrying out cargo operations at the berths located in the seaport.
The USPA emphasizes that the discounts established for the rates of port dues do not apply to the administration fee.
