Ukrainian agri products trade boosted 23 pct in January

In January 2019, exports of Ukrainian agricultural products increased by 23 pct (USD 321 million) and amounted to USD 1.7 billion. This was informed by the acting Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine Olga Trofimtseva.

Grain remains the top exported product with a share of 44.6pct, vegetable oil — 19.8 pct and oilseeds — 9.7 pct of the total agricultural exports.

“I would like to highlight the changes in the regional structure of exports. The EU countries dominate our sales markets with USD 668 million of imports in January of the current year. Asian countries reduced imports to slightly over USD USD 641 million, and while export deliveries to Africa made up USD 292.2 million,” Olga Trofimtseva commented.

The top 5 exporters of Ukrainian agri products are as follows:

• Egypt — USD 153.6 million;
• the Netherlands — USD 149.9 million;
• India — USD 143.9 million;
• Spain — USD 135.8 million;
• Turkey — USD 112.2 million.

“Given the positive trends in the export of agricultural products and its importance in terms of foreign exchange earnings generation, I would like to once again draw attention to the problems of export logistics, especially railway logistics of grains and oilseeds. Considering that critical logistics issues remain on the agenda, the Agrarian Ministry with the sector representatives decided to resume the regular work of the interdepartmental headquarters to promptly resolve agrologistics issues, to focus its work not only on solving current operational problems but also on strategic ones,” Olga Trofimtseva stressed.

Over the three years of free trade with the European Union, Ukraine increased 1.5x its exports of agricultural products to the European Union compared with 2016 to USD 6.3 billion in 2018.

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