Exports of grain from Ukraine in February 2013 could reach 1.6-1.7 million tonnes, Agricultural Policy and Food Minister of Ukraine Mykola Prysiazhniuk has said.
“I hope that it will be 1.6-1.7 million tonnes in a month [grain exports in February],” he told journalists in Kyiv on Wednesday.
The minister said that it is important that grain exports from the country do not fall.
As reported, Ukraine since the start of the current marketing year (July 2012 – June 2013) and as of February 15 had exported 16.9 million tonnes of grain, which is 41.2% up on the previous season.
Since early February 2013, Ukraine has exported 821,000 tonnes of grain, including 133,400 tonnes of wheat, 671,000 tonnes of corn, and 8,500 tonnes of barley.
At the start of the current marketing period, grain traders and the ministry signed an addition to a memorandum foreseeing that the government might introduce limitations on grain exports, and cap the maximum amounts of grain exports.
Under the agreement, at present due the fact that the country has almost exhausted its wheat export potential, only the companies that bought almost 225,300 tonnes of grain from the Agrarian Fund, can export wheat.
The ministry projects the country’s grain export potential for the current marketing year at 23.4 million tonnes.
The State Statistics Service estimated Ukraine’s grain harvest in 2012 at about 46.2 million tonnes against the record high of 56.7 million tonnes gathered in 2011.
