The volume of grain transported by Ukrzaliznytsia in January-April 2025 decreased by almost 33% compared to the same period last year, to 10.092 million tons, according to Valery Tkachov, deputy director of the company’s commercial department.
“From January to April, 10.092 million tons of grain were transported by rail. Compared to last year, we have seen a decline in transportation of almost 33%, or 4.96 million tons,” Tkachov said at an online meeting with the agricultural market on Thursday.
According to him, one of the reasons for the decline is the large volumes of transportation in the first half of 2024, related to the operation of the “grain corridor,” which started in October 2023.
“Due to the fact that the ‘grain corridor’ began operating in October 2023, farmers did not have time to harvest their crops, and therefore these volumes were transferred to the first half of 2024,” Tkachev explained.
Another reason for the reduction in grain shipments by rail in 2025 is a slight decrease in the grain harvest.
The third reason is the lack of complete data in the system, as due to the cyberattack on March 23, shipping documents were issued in paper form for some time. On April 4, Tkachov reported that since the date of the cyberattack, shippers had issued more than 50,000 documents in paper form, and that this number had now been reduced to 4,000. He admitted that once all transport documents had been entered into the electronic system, the freight vertical’s performance indicators would be adjusted.
Of the 10.092 million tons of grain transported in January-April, 8.958 million tons were exported, with exports amounting to 2.76 million tons in January, 2.25 million tons in February, 1.68 million tons in March, and 1.1 million tons in April.
The volume of grain transported in the first 20 days of May amounted to 1.207 million tons, with an average daily load of approximately 73,000 tons.
At the same time, 89% of the grain transported by rail in May was destined for ports, compared to 92.6% in April and 90% in March. Only 10% of all grain transported for export went through western land crossings.
The situation is different for vegetable oil, with only 37.1% of the total volume transported to ports in May. In April, this figure reached 47.3%. The rest of the oil is transported through western land crossings. In total, 511.4 thousand tons of oil and 799.4 thousand tons of oilcake and meal were exported in the first four months of 2025.
