You're reading: Ukraine to supply 300,000 tons food wheat to Syria

Ukraine's state-run grain trader HlibInvestBud (HIB) said on Monday it would supply 300,000 tons of Ukrainian-origin milling wheat to Syria in line with an inter-government agreement.

HIB said in a statement the deal had been signed last year.

"At the present time HIB is performing the first contract, in the frame of a general agreement, for supplying 100,000 tons of Ukrainian milling wheat to Syria," HIB said.

The trader said this was the first tranche of the 300,000 tons total, but it declined to give more details.

Ukraine harvested 22.3 million tons of wheat in 2011 and about 50 percent of grain was of milling quality.

Ukraine’s grain lobby UAC said this month the former Soviet republic had exported a total of 13.5 million tons of grain in the first eight months of the 2011/12 season against about 8.0 million in the same period a season earlier.

UAC said the volume included 7.7 million tonnes of corn, 3.6 million tons of wheat and 2.0 million tons of barley.