Barley shipment to China doubled since the start of 2020/21

The customs statistics show that in the first two months of 2020/21 about 2.2 mln t of barley were exported from Ukraine, 8% more from the corresponding period of the previous season (2 mln t), the APK-Inform consultancy writes.

The key importers of Ukrainian barley in July and August, as in the previous season, are China and Saudi Arabia. However, in the first two months of 2020/21, China purchased 97% more barley from Ukraine from in the comparative period of 2019/20. Saudi Arabia, on the contrary, reduced import volumes by 14% YoY.

The export volume accumulated in July-August of the current MY represents 48% of the projected export potential of Ukrainian barley, which is estimated by APK-Inform analysts at the level of 4.5 mln t (-10% to the indicator of 2019/20).

"Active barley deliveries from Ukraine are typical for the start of the season. Thus, in July-August 2019/20, 40% of export potential was supplied to foreign markets. On average, for the last 5 seasons, this indicator stood at 43%. At the same time, in August 2020, an absolute record of exports for this month was fixed — more than 1.3 mln t, which formed a higher share of supplies at the start of the season," noted Andrei Kupchenko, the head of business project unit APK-Inform.

As of September 10, agriproducers in Ukraine harvested 43.4 mln t of main crops on 12.3 mln ha, of which grains and legumes make up 38.7 mln t harvested on 9.8 mln ha, or 64% of the planned areas.

Barley harvesting is 100% complete in Ukraine. The new harvest amounted to 8.79 mln t on 2.38 mln ha, the crop yielded 3.69 t/ha on average.