The EU upsized Ukrainian wheat procurement by 6x

The estimates of the European Commission experts show that since the start of 2019/20 (July 1 – August 25), the EU member states have increased imports of soft wheat from Ukraine by more than 6x as compared to the corresponding period a year earlier, from 29.7 thou. t to 188.8 thou. t, the APK-Inform consultancy writes.

"This ensured Ukraine to become the key supplier of this grain crop to the European Union with a 42% share in the total volume of imports," the report says.

At the season start, there was an increase in the procurement of wheat from Moldova, up to 79.3 thou. t (17.7%), and Canada, 70.7 thou. t (15.8%). However, the volume of grain purchases from Russia in the current marketing year decreased to 42.4 thou. t and the share of Russian grain in the total volume of imports decreased from 32% a year earlier to apx. 10%.

In total, within July 1 – August 25, the import of wheat by the EU countries increased by 11% from the prior year's level up to 448 thou. t.

Previously reported that grain shipment in Ukrainian seaports in the period of August 17 – 23 stood at 1.43 mln t, 1% less from the previous week (1.45 mln t on the basis of updated data).