Ukraine plans to import 20,000 tons of buckwheat from China, the director of the agrarian market development department at the Ukrainian Agrarian Policy and Food Ministry, Anatoliy Rozhon, has said.
"Talks are underway, and soon a Ukrainian delegation is to visit China. There is a preliminary agreement to import 20,000 tonnes of buckwheat from China to Ukraine," he said at a press conference in Kyiv on January 28.
Rozhon said that according to preliminary calculations, the selling prices of Chinese buckwheat would be UAH 10-11 per kilogram.
"This is a response of the government to those who are lobbying for barley price growth. Let them keep their buckwheat," he said.
Rozhon said that the State Food Grain Corporation or Khlib Investbud Ltd. would import the buckwheat.
He added that the price of buckwheat in Ukraine today was set too high. According to the ministry, the production cost of buckwheat this year is UAH 1,747 per tonne against UAH 1,505 per tonne in 2009.
He also said that the Agrarian Fund would buy 20,000-25,000 tonnes of barley under forward contracts to create a stabilization reserve to prevent price volatility and support buckwheat growth in 2011. Rozhon said that the ministry expects that the area planted with buckwheat would expand from last year’s 200,000 hectares to 300,000 hectares in 2011.
As reported, referring to market experts, recently buckwheat producers are not selling the crop due to measures by state supervision bodies to suppress buckwheat price growth. Market operators say that the price of buckwheat in Ukraine is up to UAH 18 per kilogram.
Due to the fact that the area planted with buckwheat has fallen over the past several years in Ukraine, the supply of buckwheat on the market is falling. In 2010, buckwheat production was 133,000 tonnes, and its ending stocks as of July 1, 2010 came to only 8,400 tonnes, against 29,500 tonnes a year before. General demand for buckwheat in 2010-2011 marketing year is estimated at 214,000 tonnes by the government, including 183,000 tonnes for consumption by the public.
