Oilseeds export to MENA upsized over three seasons

Over the last three seasons, Ukraine has significantly increased the volume of oilseed crops export to MENA (Middle East & North Africa). This was stated by Cezary Maciborski, Board Member at MK Merchants SA and Commercial Director at GrainExpo, the APK-Inform consultancy reports.

In 2017/18, the share of oilseeds shipments from Ukraine to this region of the total exports reached 59%, in 2018/19 — 64%, while in the first half of 2019/20 this indicator totalled 67%.

The expert noted a considerable increase in shipments of Ukrainian soybean to the MENA market in the first half of 2019/20 — at the level of 1.2 mln t vs. 0.5 mln t in the corresponding period of the previous season (a 2.4x increase), which also accounts for 75% of total oilseeds exports in 2018/19 in this direction.

"Furthermore, Ukraine is gradually increasing export of grain crops, which allowed to ship up to 18.7 mln t (+12% p.a.) to MENA countries in 2018/19. At the same time, in the first half of 2019/20 shipments of Ukrainian grain increased by 68% to 11.8 mln t from the relevant period of the previous season," added Cezary Maciborski.

According to him, the main grain crop supplied from Ukraine to MENA since the start of the current season was wheat — 54% of the total volume, while in the previous season the leading position was held by corn. Thus, the share of corn export from Ukraine in 2018/19 to the MENA countries amounted to 51%, and wheat — 33%.

As a reminder, in the week of Feb. 22-28, staple grains shipment in Ukrainian seaports amounted to 963 thou. t, 21% lower from the previous week's volumes.