KYIV, Aug 19 (Reuters) – Ukraine’s grain exports have fallen 51.6% since the start of the 2022-2023 season from the previous one, to 2.99 million tonnes, it said. Friday the Ministry of Agriculture.
In the 2021-2022 season, which ended on June 30, exports represented 48.5 million tonnes, a volume up 8.5%, but this increase was concentrated in the period preceding the invasion of the country by Russia on February 24.
Ukrainian grain deliveries have plummeted since the outbreak of the war, which led to the shutdown of activity at Black Sea ports.
Three of these ports reopened at the end of July after an agreement between Moscow and Kyiv under the aegis of the United Nations and Turkey.
Statistics released by the Ukrainian Ministry of Agriculture show that since the start of the 2022-2023 season, Ukraine has exported 1.94 million tons of corn, 783,000 tons of wheat and 257,000 tons of barley.
These volumes include 1.29 million tonnes exported since the beginning of August. Over the same period last year, exports had reached 3.14 million tonnes.
The Ukrainian government has said it expects harvests of at least 50 million tonnes this year, compared to a record 86 million tonnes in 2021. A drop explained by lower yields and the passage under Russian control of part of the arable land.
The federation of wheat brokers UGA clarified for its part that the 2022 wheat harvest was 91% complete and that it represented 17.4 million tonnes.
(Report Pavel Polityuk, French version Marc Angrand, edited by Kate Entringer)