KIEV: Ukraine exported a record 40.2 MMT of grains in 2016, or almost 7.5% more than in 2015, reports the Agrarian Economics Institute. This included 17.9 MMT of wheat, 17.3 MMT of corn and 4.8 MMT of barley.
However, due to a decline in world commodity prices, the record grain exports from Ukraine did not generate record revenues in 2016. The latter remained almost at the 2015 level: about USD 6.1 Bl. A peculiarity of 2016 grain exports was an advance in the Asian direction. Countries of this part of the globe absorbed 54.3% of Ukrainian grain exports.
As before, the top importer of Ukrainian grain is Egypt with an export share of 12.4% (USD 755 Ml). China remains the second largest buyer (7.6%) and Spain is ranking third (7.1%), informs UkrAgroConsult.
Indonesia boosted imports 2.1 times over the year, to USD 331 Ml in value terms (5.4%). However, the main feature of 2016 was India, which imported USD 316 Ml worth of grain from Ukraine (5.2%).
Thailand increased purchases to USD 301 Ml (4.9%), while Iran and Bangladesh doubled their imports and grasped export shares of 4.9% and 4.8%, respectively. Over 3% was on account of countries such as Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Italy, Libya, the Netherlands and Tunisia.
