Ukraine since the beginning of the current marketing year (starting on July 1, 2011) has exported 4.8 million tonnes of grain, the press service of the Ukrainian Agrarian Confederation (UAC) said on Tuesday.
In October grain exports were about 1.5 million tonnes, including one million tonnes of maize, 300,000 tonnes of barley and 200,000 tonnes of wheat.
"The extremely low rate of Ukrainian grain exports in the current year, on the background of the record high harvest in 2011, is almost 200,000 tonnes down on the exports in July-October 2010, when Ukraine introduced grain export quotas, and almost two times down on July-October 2009 (8.9 million tonnes)," the press service said, citing UAC Director General Serhiy Stoyanov.
According to him, grain export duties from July 1 to Sept. 22, 2011 affected the volumes of Ukrainian grain exports.
In addition, according to the UAC, Ukraine in July-October 2011 exported 800,000 tonnes of oilseeds, whereas in the same period of 2010 the figure was 1.1 million tonnes, including 700,000 tonnes of rapeseed, which is 300,000 tonnes down on last year.
"One of the main reasons for the very significant decline in oilseed exports in the current year compared to the previous years is the change from July 1, 2011 to VAT charge – both when performing internal operations with rapeseed and exporting the crop," the statement reads.
