Ukraine grain exports unaffected by border tensions, say traders

KYIV: Escalating tensions on Ukraine's eastern border with Russia has not affected domestic grain exports and prices, traders said on Friday, adding that they are closely monitoring the situation in a region that provides a significant part of the world's food needs.

Kyiv has expressed concern over a build-up of Russian forces near the border between Ukraine and Russia as well as a rise in violence along the line separating Ukrainian troops and Russia-backed separatists in Ukraine's Donbass region.

Though Ukraine is a major global grain exporter, selling 57 million tonnes of various grains in the 2019/20 season, the country's deputy economy minister in charge of agriculture, Taras Vysotskiy, told Reuters he has seen "no anxiety in the market".

Traders echoed that, with one foreign trader saying: "I don't see any nervousness yet and it didn't affect prices. But we are monitoring the situation".

Ukraine has already exported around 36.5 million tonnes of grain in the current 2020/21 season, 22.6% less than in the same period in 2019/20.

The volume included 17.29 million tonnes of corn, 14.49 million tonnes of wheat and 4.11 million tonnes of barley, the ministry said.

Traditionally, most of the exports have left Ukraine via its Black Sea ports.

All Ukrainian Black Sea ports have resumed operations after they were disrupted on Thursday by military drills, the Ukrainian sea port authority said on Friday.