India has imported 1.5 million tonnes of Ukrainian wheat since the beginning of 2016/2017 MY

During July-November 2016, India imported about 1.5 million tons of wheat from Ukraine.

This was reported by Yelizaveta Malyshko, the leading expert of UkrAgroConsult grain market, according to Interfax-Ukraine.

According to her, the main reason India increased the purchases was the reduction of import duty on wheat at the beginning of the season from 25% to 10%, and in December 2016 — its cancellation due to the increasing demand for this crop in the country. Yelizaveta Malyshko also noted that the three leading importers of Ukrainian wheat also include Thailand (1.4 million tons) and Indonesia (1.3 million tons).

The APK-Inform grain market analysts Andrey Kupchenko reported that wheat shipments to India from the Black Sea competitor countries are insignificant.

"About 3 thousand tons of wheat were delivered in July-November 2016 from Russia to India, the crop has not been supplied from Kazakhstan at all. Given the export potential of Ukrainian wheat at 15 million tons, it is possible to provide, if not all, then most of the Indian imports", he said.

The ProAgro company agricultural markets analyst Yaroslav Levitsky said that Ukrainian wheat in the current season is not only rapidly gaining the Indian market but also successfully replacing its main competitor — Australian grain.

It was previously reported that since the beginning of 2016/17 MY wheat export from Ukraine as of December 13 amounted to 10.37 million tons, which is 1.28 million tons more than at the same period last year.