Ukraine has no plans to curb grain exports
Ukraine, which risks losing a large part of its winter grains due to poor weather conditions, has no immediate plans to curb exports of grain, Agriculture Minister Mykola Prysyazhnyuk said on Wednesday, commenting on market concerns.
Ukraine’s Farm Ministry said this week that poor weather during sowing and wintering had damaged up to 3 million hectares of winter crops, which could be reseeded this spring.
Earlier this year it said the reseeded area could reach 2.5 million hectares.The ministry said farms had sown 8.5 million hectares to winter crops and that a severe drought in July-November had prevented seeds in an area of 1.5 million hectares from sprouting.
According to the data provided by analysts, about 33 percent of sprouted crops, mostly winter wheat, are in a poor state.Ukrainian traders said last week the government, worried about a possible fall in the 2012 wheat harvest, could limit exports of wheat in a bid to build up high grain stocks.
They said exports of wheat could be limited to 1.2 million tonnes in February-March.Ukraine had 8.9 million tonnes of wheat in stocks as of February 1.
Ukraine, which consumes 12 million tonnes of wheat per season, harvested 22.3 million tonnes of wheat in 2011 and has exported no more than 3 million tonnes of wheat so far this season.
But Prysyazhnyuk said the already slow pace of wheat exports would help the government to raise stocks.“We have had almost no exports so far in February and there is no reason to talk about curbs,” he said.
Ukraine limited exports in 2010/11 using export quotas and imposed grain export duties in the first months of the current season.
“(Prysyazhnyuk’s statement) means they will do it (limit exports) anyway, but using administrative methods, especially for wheat,” a German trader told Reuters.Traders say severe frosts across most Ukrainian regions have dramatically slowed the pace of grain exports from the country’s Black Sea ports.
Frosts at about minus 30 degrees Celsius (minus 22 Fahrenheit) make it impossible to load grain onto railway cars inside the country, while strong wind and ice prevent grain loading in ports.Kyiv-based ProAgro consultancy said this week that Ukraine had exported about 335,000 tonnes of grain, mostly maize, in the first nine days of February.
ProAgro said the volume included 287,000 tonnes of maize and 40,500 tonnes of wheat.
It said an additional 770,000 tonnes of maize and 352,000 of wheat would be exported in the near future.