A mysterious newcomer to Ukraine's lucrative grain market, Hlib Investbud (HIB), said on Wednesday it planned to export at least 1.5 million tonnes of grain this season and could double that amount in 2011/2012. HIB emerged last summer from the restructuring of Ukraine's main grain company, which was fully state-owned. It is now owned 49 percent by the state and 51 percent by private investors who have never been identified.
The company has moved into the lucrative export market as well as making grain purchases for a state-run intervention fund that is responsible for ensuring domestic food price stability. Last year, a severe drought threw the Black Sea grain market into turmoil. Russia banned all grain exports, and Ukraine - previously the world's largest barley exporter and one of the top five for wheat and maize - in October imposed export quotas.
HIB, which had not exported before the quotas, won more than 20 percent of the total quota volume of 4.2 million tonnes. This prompted exporters and traders to accuse the government of favouritism for a firm that is only partly state-owned. HIB General Director Robert Brovdi said in an interview the procedure for allocating the quotas was fair and transparent.
"More that 50 companies received quotas. All who had an interest, who possessed volumes of grain, all of them received quotas," Brovdi said. "The problem is that they (traders) assumed they would export more, similar to the amounts that they had done in previous periods."
Ukraine harvested 39 million tonnes of grain in 2010, and its exports are forecast at 11 million tonnes in the July-June 2010/11 season. Brovdi said HIB could account for up to 15 percent of that volume. "We are talking about the export of 1.5 million tonnes of grain this season, and we want to approach 2 million," Brovdi said. He said a higher grain harvest this year could allow HIB to increase exports to about 3 million tonnes in 2011/12 and that the company had already bought grain on a forward basis for future exports.