Ukraine's grain exports down in October

Ukraine's grain exports totalled about 1.0 million tonnes in October 1-24 against 1.07 million in the same period in September, UkrAgroConsult agriculture consultancy said on Thursday. The consultancy said in a report the volume had included 173,000 tonnes of wheat, 275,000 of barley and 557,000 of maize. It said Ukrainian wheat had been supplied to Saudi Arabia, Kenya and Jordan, while barley - to Saudi Arabia, Iran and Syria.
UkrAgroConsult reported that maize went to 'North Africa and the Middle East' but gave no further details. Ukraine, which forecast a grain harvest of about 53 million tonnes this year, plans to export a record 27 million tonnes in the 2011/12 season against 12.7 million in 2010/11.
But the former Soviet republic exported only 3.3 million tonnes of grain in the first three months of the current season, including 1.5 million of wheat, 1.4 million of barley and 108,776 of maize. Ukraine exported 3.5 million tonnes of grain in July-September 2010, in a campaign affected by drought. Analysts and officials have said Ukraine is likely to accelerate its exports in the nearest future taking advantage of the recent cancellation of grain export duties.
Ukraine last year limited grain exports by quotas and sold abroad 12.7 million tonnes of grain in the 2010/2011 season. Grain export duties replaced quotas which had been put in place to preserve Ukrainian stocks in the wake of last year's drought. They said Ukrainian grain could compete with Russian material, which has dominated the market this season.
Earlier this week Jordan's state grains buyer purchased 100,000 tonnes of hard wheat from Ukraine in a tender, but Ukraine failed to break into the Egyptian grain market after GASC bought Russian wheat. UKrainian wheat to Jordan will be supplied by Nibulon grain trader, according to Ukrainian Agrarian Confederation grain lobby. Egypt's main state wheat buyer, the General Authority for Supply Commodities (GASC), said this week it would include wheat of Ukrainian origin in its next wheat tender. Ukraine, a traditional supplier of wheat to the Middle East and North Africa, had been excluded from tenders last season due to quality problems.