KIEV: Ukraine boosted its grain exports to 4.54 million tons in March up 52 percent from 2.98 million tons in February thanks to record sales of maize, analyst UkrAgroConsult said.
The maize shipments jumped to 3.1 million tons in March, the highest so far for the 2016/2017 marketing year that runs from July to June, from 1.8 million tons in February.
Exports of wheat rose to 1.05 million tons from 840,000 tons a month earlier.
Ukraine exported a total of 34.2 million tons of grain in the first nine months of the current 2016/2017 season.
Earlier this month, UkrAgroConsult raised its forecast for the 2017 grain harvest to 61.4 million tons from a previous estimate of 60.9 million tons.
A stronger harvest would likely raise the 2017/18 grain export forecast to 39.5 million tons from 38.8 million tons, said UkrAgroConsult.
Ukraine’s agriculture ministry forecasts grain exports for the period at a record 42 million tons.
