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.
Based on the results of the analysis of export operations with agricultural products, BES analysts found that over 9 months, risky enterprises exported grain of unknown origin for UAH 133.9 billion. This is more than 20% of the total amount.
Currently, the Bureau of Economic Security has submitted its proposals to the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine to minimize risks in this sector of the economy.
One of the most common methods of “black” grain exports is the use of risky enterprises. They are set up in advance to export unaccounted-for grain purchased for cash.
In other words, farmers grow grain and sell it for cash to companies that are usually registered to front companies and do not engage in regular business activities.
These companies do not submit documents on the origin of the grain or declare fictitious producers in their customs declarations.
After the grain leaves Ukraine, it is resold several times and then legally reaches the final buyer. As a result, foreign currency earnings do not return to Ukraine, and the budget does not receive any revenues, as the exporting companies are fictitious.
Usually, the final buyer of grain is a non-resident company that transfers the money for the goods to another non-resident company related to a Ukrainian exporter.
There is also a scheme in which foreign currency is transferred to the current accounts of a non-resident, who then buys the goods, for example, in China and imports them to Ukraine to sell them for cash and to give other companies a tax credit.
To counteract offenses in this area, employees of the Economic Security Bureau constantly analyze export operations. Based on the results of such analysis, 43 analytical products and certificates were created, and almost 4,500 orders to initiate inspection (re-inspection) of goods were sent to the State Customs Service. For example, according to the BES in Odesa region, the customs office refused to clear 75 customs declarations totaling 1.6 million tons worth more than $430 million.
As part of 22 criminal proceedings, BES detectives served notices of suspicion to 12 officials of “risky” grain exporters for committing crimes under Articles 212 and 205-1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, conducted 71 searches, and sent 12 criminal proceedings to court. The courts have issued 8 indictments.
