The Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine is working to extend the abolition of duties and quotas for the import of agricultural products to the EU countries for the entire period of its candidacy for the EU, as well as to harmonize Ukrainian legislation with the European one.
The integration prospects in the context of Ukraine obtaining the status of a candidate for EU membership were announced by First Deputy Minister Taras Vysotsky at a meeting with the European Business Association (EBA) on June 22, according to the EBA website on Friday.
According to the organization, in addition to the abolition of quotas and duties from the EU in early July, it is planned to cancel licenses for the export of Ukrainian wheat to the EU countries.
Also, in order to open alternative logistics routes, the ministry is negotiating with countries on the use of the Baltic and Polish corridors for the export of agricultural products.
“To support the dairy industry, the Ministry of Agrarian Policy is negotiating with the European Commission to provide grants of up to EUR 50 million to small farmers, and the possibility of submitting them to other international support programs is being considered,” EBA quotes Vysotsky.
The association noted that in the near future it is planned to separate queues for customs clearance of goods with perishable products at two checkpoints on the border with Poland – in Krakovets and Yahodyn.
As reported, on June 4, Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council No. 2022/870 on temporary trade liberalization measures, exempting Ukrainian exports from all duties and quotas for a year, came into force.
The temporary suspension of exports of wheat, flour and sugar will ensure Moldova’s food security until the next harvest, Minister of Agriculture and Food Industry Viorel Gerciu said Thursday in parliament.
The minister did not predict the price of bread in autumn, but said that this year’s wheat harvest will be less than last year’s (900,000 tons instead of 1.7 million tons). But even this will be enough to cover domestic demand, which is estimated at 660,000 tons per year.
Referring to the supply of fertilizers in Moldova, disrupted due to hostilities in Ukraine, the minister said that the country consumes 270,000 tons of fertilizers annually. Until the end of February, the cost of this volume of fertilizers was estimated at $80 million, but now the price has risen to $220 million. “129,000 tons of fertilizers have already been imported to Moldova this year, which is enough to meet the needs of agricultural producers today,” Gerciu added.
Participants in the grain market and the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine have set the maximum export volumes for wheat in the current 2021/2022 marketing year (MY) at 25.3 million tonnes, compared to 17.5 million tonnes in the previous marketing year. According to the ministry’s website, the corresponding addition to the memorandum of understanding for 2021/2022 was signed on October 19.
The ministry recalled that it is organizing the signing of such memorandums on its platform, starting in 2011, to ensure food security, in order to avoid the use of export restrictions, to ensure a predictable grain export regime and to stabilize the grain market in Ukraine.
“The practice of signing memorandums is successful in terms of compliance by the signatories with the conditions on the possibility of exporting grain volumes,” the department noted.
At the same time, this year the heads of the Ukrainian Millers union, the Ukrainian Bakers’ Association and Ukrkhlibprom withdrew their signatures to the memorandum, considering the export ceiling without dividing wheat into food and fodder as highly inflated.
In its September report, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) kept the forecast for the production of Ukrainian wheat in the 2021/22 year (July-June) at 33 million tonnes, and its exports at 23.5 million tonnes, which is in line with the Department’s forecast published in August. In the September report, the USDA also kept the forecast for the corn harvest in 2021/22 at 39 million tonnes, and its exports from Ukraine at 32 million tonnes.
As reported, from the beginning of 2021/22 and as of September 10, 2021, Ukraine exported 10.29 million tonnes of grains and legumes, which is 12% more than on the same date of the previous year. Some 5.92 million tonnes of wheat were exported (4.1% less than on the same date 2020/21), 2.99 million tonnes of barley (a rise of 24.7%), 1.34 million tonnes of corn (2.2 times up); 24,700 tonnes of flour (33.7% less).
Ukraine has already harvested 29 million tonnes of wheat this season, which is 4 million tonnes more than last season, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said at a meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers on Wednesday.
“In Ukraine, the harvesting of grain and leguminous crops continues. This year we can reach all-time high yields compared to previous years. More than 29 million tonnes of wheat have already been harvested. Corresponding figures show that, before finishing the season, we have already received 4 million tonnes more than last year as a whole,” the Prime Minister said.
At the same time, Shmyhal said that the State Agrarian Registry, which is currently being created, will help increase the competitiveness of the Ukrainian agro-industrial complex and more convenient interaction between all its structural divisions.
“This is a new level of relations between the state and agricultural producers, based on the principles of transparency, convenience and accessibility. Today we will approve the distribution of money for the Ministry of Agrarian Policy to ensure measures to create the Registry,” the prime minister said.
According to him, the implementation of the “single window” principle in the Registry will make it easier for farmers to receive services and state support. In addition, the Registry will provide an opportunity to facilitate access to bank financing.
“The agrarian Registry will accumulate the services most demanded among agricultural producers and, most importantly, will minimize the role of officials,” Shmyhal summed up.
Since the beginning of the harvesting campaign as of August 13, Ukrainian farmers have harvested 39.5 million tonnes (a rise of 7.3 million tonnes per week from August 6 to August 13) of grain, legumes and oilseeds from an area of 9 million hectares (56% of the forecast).
According to the information and analytical portal of the agro-industrial complex of Ukraine, in the context of crops, the following crops were threshed: 28.7 million tonnes of wheat from an area of 6.2 million hectares (88% of the total area under this crop), 9.42 million tonnes of barley from 2.3 million hectares (92%), 2.6 million tonnes of rapeseed from 0.95 million hectares (94%), 0.54 million tonnes of peas from 0.23 million hectares (96%).
According to the portal, the yield of harvested wheat was 460 tonnes per ha, barley – 416 tonnes per ha, rapeseed – 275 tonnes per ha, and peas – 233 tonnes per ha.
The portal said that the leaders in harvesting since the beginning of the harvesting campaign were Kherson (the harvest was harvested from 91% of the area), Zaporizhia (90%), Donetsk and Mykolaiv (86% each), Luhansk (84%) regions. At the same time, wheat harvesting was completed by farmers of four regions, barley – by six regions. The collection of peas was completed in 18 regions of the country, rapeseed – in nine.
Agricultural producers of Khmelnytsky region were the leaders in average grain yield, harvesting respectively from 29% of the area with a yield of 614.5 tonnes per ha.
