Ukraine to sign grain export document with traders on Thursday

• Ukraine will sign on Thursday its annual memorandum with traders setting terms for wheat exports for the season that runs from July 2019, to June 2020, the deputy minister for economy.
• Traders asked the government last month to increase the volume of wheat allowed for export in 2019/20 to 20 million tonnes from the 19 million proposed by the government.

KIEV: Ukraine will sign on Thursday its annual memorandum with traders setting terms for wheat exports for the season that runs from July 2019, to June 2020, the deputy minister for economy, trade and agriculture told Reuters.

Taras Vysotsky said the document, in which traders agree to adhere to any export limits while the government agrees not to change export rules, would not include an export figure. Such a figure has sometimes been included in previous years.

Traders asked the government last month to increase the volume of wheat allowed for export in 2019/20 to 20 million tonnes from the 19 million proposed by the government.

Ukraine, which harvested about 27 million tonnes of wheat in 2018, increased grain exports by 49pc to 13.59 million tonnes in the first three months of the 2019/20 season, agriculture ministry data showed.

That included 8.63 million tonnes of wheat, 61pc more than in the same period a season earlier.

Ukraine plans to harvest around 71 million tonnes of grain this year, almost the same as in 2018.

In 2018/19 Ukraine exported a record 50 million tonnes of grains.