Ukraine increased grain shipments through its seaports by about two percent in the first 20 days of May to about 521,240 tonnes compared with 510,930 tonnes in the same period of April, analysts said on Monday. Kiev-based ProAgro agriculture constancy said in a statement quoting data from ports that wheat dominated the exports, accounting for about 62 percent of the volume.
Analysts said Ukraine had also exported feed barley, maize, wheat bran, peas and sorghum. ProAgro said about 128,300 tonnes of various grains were due to be exported in coming weeks from Ukraine.
This month an analyst said Ukraine increased its wheat exports by about 20 percent to 354,500 tonnes in April from 296,200 tonnes in March because of high sales to Spain.
The country also increased its barley exports to 160,400 tonnes in April from 152,300 in March. Ukraine exported a total of nine million tonnes of various grains in July-March, up from 2.117 million in the same period in 2003/04.
The exports included 3.38 million tonnes of wheat, 3.94 million of barley, 1.34 million of maize. ProAgro said Ukraine was likely to export a total of 10.4 million tonnes of grain in 2004/05.
The country exported 2.795 million tonnes in 2003/04 (July-June) and about 10.7 million a season. The government has said an increase in the grain crop to 41.8 million tonnes clean weight in 2004 could allow Ukraine to boost exports to about 10 million tonnes.