Ukraine in April could get chance to additionally export 300,000 t of wheat, says UGA

The Agricultural Policy and Food Ministry of Ukraine in April could permit the sale of at least 300,000 tonnes of grain for exports by the Agrarian Fund, President of the Ukrainian Grain Association (UGA), Volodymyr Klymenko, has said.

"In April they could permit [exporting] 300,000 tonnes of [wheat], maybe more. [Agricultural Policy and Food] Minister [Mykola Prysiazhniuk] says that it could be 700,000 tonnes," he told reporters in Kyiv on Thursday.

Klymenko said that the decision could be made next week, after the final assessment of the state of winter crops.

He said that the Agrarian Fund at present has 1.5 million tonnes of wheat in its stocks, with the minimum required volume being 1.2 million tonnes.

The expert does not expect that grain traders will show great interest in the Agrarian Fund's wheat due to the unfavorable situation with prices of wheat on global markets. He said that the companies have not shipped the volume of grain bought from the Agrarian Fund earlier.

As reported, at the start of the current season grain traders and the ministry defined the conditions for the possible introduction of restrictions on grain exports by the state and the largest possible volumes of grain exports.

Under the agreement, at present, due the fact that the country has almost exhausted its wheat export potential, only companies that bought almost 225,300 tonnes of grain from the Agrarian Fund can export wheat.

The ministry said that it could permit traders to additionally export 500,000 tonnes of wheat this season if the state of winter crops is good.

As of March 19, 2013, 19 million tonnes of grain had been exported from Ukraine, including 10.1 million tonnes of corn, 6.2 million tonnes of wheat and over 2 million tonnes of barley.