Wheat exports from Ukraine 2018/19: 14 pct of deliveries left

Since the start of the 2018/19 season, as of January 31st, 28.05 million tons of grain were exported from Ukraine, 11.75 million tons of which is wheat, UkrAgroConsult writes.

The remaining deliveries of milling wheat including flour in grain equivalent stand at 6.91 million tons, and fodder wheat — 4.84 million tons.

73.4 pct of wheat agreed for export in the Memorandum for MY2018/19 has already been exported. At the same time, the volume of milling wheat exports, taking into account flour in grain equivalent, already amounts to 86.3 pct of the agreed volume, and feed grain — 60.5 pct.

By the Memorandum, in February-June the volume of wheat exports from Ukraine must not exceed 4.25 million tons (1.09 million tons of milling wheat including flour and 3.16 million tons of fodder wheat).

Analysts note that the export volumes of recent years slightly exceed the volumes agreed in the Memorandum. However, they consider it unlikely to happen again this season. Wheat reserves in the country are at low levels, and there is even less grain meeting the export quality.

The export price of Black Sea wheat loses its competitiveness on the world market, and the operators of the Ukrainian market are primarily focused on corn exports.

Reference: in August 2018, the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine and the grain market participants signed the Memorandum of Understanding for MY2018/19. The total agreed indicative volume of wheat exports is 16 million tons, that is milling and fodder wheat will be exported in equal volumes — 8 million tons each.

The new infographic guide Agribusiness of Ukraine 2017/18 is available by the link.