Ukraine's State Railway Administration has banned its grain railway cars from leaving the country, a spokeswoman for the body said on Friday, effectively halting railway grain exports.
"It is a temporary restriction which was introduced in a bid to secure domestic shipments," she said. She added that the ban had come into force on February 1 and would remain until a special decision by the railway authority.
The spokeswoman said Ukraine operated about 11,000 grain cars and around 1,000 of them were outside of Ukrainian territory as of February 3.
"Our service is relatively cheap and traders prefer to keep our cars for as long as possible," she said.
Local grain traders’ union UZA said last year Ukraine’s grain exports were unlikely to exceed 20 million tonnes in the 2011/12 season due to a shortage of railway grain wagons.
UZA head Volodymyr Klymenko said traders had booked 2,500 wagons per day while the railway could provide them with no more than 1,200 cars.
Ukraine harvested a record 56.7 million tonnes of grain in 2011 and exportable surplus totals 23-26 million tonnes in 2011/12.
Analysts forecast the exports at about 20-22 million tonnes this season against 12.7 million in the 2010/11 season, which was hit by drought.
Analyst Mykola Vernytsky from Kiev-based ProAgro consultancy said the ban would hit consumers of Ukrainian grains and sunflower meal in Europe and CIS.
"This decision means that Ukraine has a real shortage of cars," Vernytsky said.
"Authorities are likely to speed up Ukrainian marine exports but the decision will hit our clients in Europe. Ukraine exports a lot of grain in cars even to Germany".
According to analysts, Ukraine traditionally exports small amounts of peas, oats, barley, sorghum and other minor cereals to European consumers.
