The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has upgraded its wheat export forecast for Ukraine for the current marketing year (July 2012 through June 2013) by 200,000 tonnes from the December forecast, to 6.2 million tonnes, the USDA has said on its Web site.
At the same time, the USDA downgraded its forecast for wheat carry-over stocks at the end of the current marketing year from 2.96 million tonnes to 2.76 million tonnes compared to 5.16 million at the beginning of this marketing year.
The forecast of U.S. experts for other crops remained unchanged: wheat harvest at 15.5 million tones, that of maize at 20.5 million tonnes, other cereals at 8.06 million tonnes; maize exports at 12.5 million tones, other cereals export at 2.21 million tonnes.
The Ukrainian Agricultural Policy and Food Ministry said that according to preliminary date Ukraine harvested in 2012 about 46.2 million tonnes of grain, compared to a record high of 56.7 million tonnes in 2011.
Grain exports from Ukraine since the beginning of the current marketing year and as of January 9 stood at 14.8 million tonnes, with the forecast for the current marketing year being 23 million tonnes.
