Ukraine since the beginning of the new 2019/2020 agricultural year (July-June) and as of October 7, 2019 had exported 14.472 million tonnes of grain and legumes, which is 45% more than on the same date last agri-year.
According to the Ministry of Agricultural Policy and Food, farmers have also exported 9.2 million tonnes of wheat, 2.99 million tonnes of barley, and 2.24 million tonnes of corn.
As of October 7 of this year, 87,800 tonnes of flour have also been exported.
As reported, with reference to the ministry, Ukraine in the 2018/2019 agri-year exported a record 50.4 million tonnes of grain, legumes and flour, which is 23% more than in the previous agri-year.
PJSC Ukrzaliznytsia in September 2019 has launched three new container trains for grain transportation running on a fixed schedule from Chornomorsk-Port station (Odesa region) to Balin station (Khmelnytsky region), and from Hnivan station (Vinnytsia region) to Starokostyantynivka station (Khmelnytsky region).
This follows from the report of Ukrzaliznytsia press service as quoting company’s head Yevhen Kravtsov as saying on September 24.
The railway operator has already put 27 container trains, of which 22 are regular ones.
“Now Ukrzaliznytsia operates about 150 grain containers used to transport grain cargo from elevators to seaports. The design of these containers allows to unload grain directly onto the vessel, which significantly speeds up the transportation process, and, therefore, reduces its cost,” the press service quotes Kravtsov.
According to him, in general, from the beginning of 2019, 248,280 containers (TEU) were transported, which is 10% more than over the same period in 2018.
Besides, Kravtsov said that since the beginning of 2019, the company launched extra ten container trains, of which four are international ones.
“Such service allows reducing the turnover of rolling stock more than three times and, as a result, helps to reduce the final cost of cargo transportation by 25%,” Ukrzaliznytsia head said.
Ukraine as of September 9, 2019 threshed 39.7 million tonnes of grain and leguminous crops from 10.1 million ha (66% of the target) with an average yield of 3.92 tonnes per ha, the Agricultural Policy and Food Ministry of Ukraine has reported. According to the ministry, 281,000 tonnes of corn were threshed from an area of 46,000 ha (1%), buckwheat – 29,000 tonnes from 46,000 ha (32%), millet – 110,000 tonnes from 58,000 ha (64%). Early grain and leguminous crops collected 39.2 million tonnes from an area of 9.96 million hectares.
In addition, 2.5 million tonnes of sunflower were harvested from 1.2 million hectares (21%) with a yield of 2.04 tonnes per ha and 484,000 tonnes of soybeans from 214,000 ha (14%) with a yield of 2.26 tonnes per ha.
As reported, the ministry predicts this year’s harvest in Ukraine at 71.1 million tonnes (of which 27.8 million tonnes of wheat) compared to 70.1 million tonnes in 2018.
Ukraine since the beginning of the new 2019/2020 marketing year (MY, July-June) and as of September 6, 2019 had exported 9.792 million tonnes of grain and legumes, which is 1.6 times more than on the same date of the previous MY.
According to the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food, farmers also exported 5.63 million tonnes of wheat, 1.86 million tonnes of corn, 2.28 million tonnes of barley. As of September 6 this year, 52,600 tonnes of flour had been also exported.
As reported, with reference to the ministry, in the 2018/2019 marketing year, Ukraine exported a record 50.4 million tonnes of grain, legumes and flour, which is 23% more than in the previous MY.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) in August raised its forecast for grain exports by 2.65 million tonnes compared with the July forecast, to 54.04 million tonnes.
Ascet Shipping, a private port operator, in August 2019 increased grain transshipment in Berdiansk seaport to 204,100 tonnes, which is 90.3% more than in August 2018 (107,200 tonnes).
According to the company’s press service, with reference to the director of Ascet Shipping’s branch in Berdiansk, Viktoria Abreyeva, in August the stevedoring company simultaneously loaded four to five motor ships per day at Berdiansk seaport. According to her, the corresponding volume of transshipment was achieved thanks to the planning and distribution of resources.
“We tried to load the vessels as quickly as possible, because the queue at the port’s roads always had four to seven ships waiting to be docked … Our process of loading ships using the direct “vehicle-to-ship” option allows loading several ships at different berths at the same time,” she said.
In August 2019 the company handled barley, peas and wheat, while loading 28 ships.
Ascet Shipping operates in five ports (Mykolaiv, Mariupol, Odesa, Kherson, Berdiansk). In Berdiansk seaport, it carries out a full cycle of sea transshipment of goods.
Ukraine’s Agricultural Policy and Food Ministry has revised upwards its forecast for grain harvest in 2019 from 70.8 million tonnes to 71.1 million tonnes, the ministry reported on its website. The wheat production will total 27.8 million under the ministry’s forecasts.
According to the ministry, in September the ministry and market participants will decide on acceptable balance of grain exports and will sign a memorandum of understanding over the volume of grain exports in 2019/2020 agricultural year.
“The main document of the memorandum, the so-called agreement of understanding for 2019/2020 agricultural year, will be sent to all participants of the grain market before the end of this week,” the ministry said.
As reported, Agricultural Ministry and grain market participants in August 2018 memorandum envisaged 16 million tonnes of wheat export for 2018/2019 agricultural year against 16.5 million tonnes envisaged for a previous marketing year.
