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increase the export to China of Ukrainian chicken, flour, fish, eggs, apples, blueberries, and cherries.
Ukraine’s trade with China, its largest trading partner, jumped by 48%, to $7.4bn, during the first five months of this year, compared to January-May last year, Fan Xiangong, China’s ambassador to Ukraine told reporters in June. He said Ukraine is the top supplier to China of wheat, sunflower oil and sunflower meal. Speaking at a press conference dedicated to 10 years of the China-Ukraine strategic partnership, Fan said the two countries will sign “in a couple of days...a new form of Chinese participation in the construction of infrastructure in Ukraine.”
Two-way China-Ukraine trade in farm goods jumped by one third, to $5.7bn, during the first four months of this year, compared to January-April of last year, reports Ukraine’s Economy Ministry. Chinese investment in Ukrainian fisheries and food processing plants was discussed yesterday at a bilateral agricultural cooperation meeting in Kyiv. The meeting was co-chaired by Ma Yusyan, China’s deputy minister of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, and by Taras Kachka, Ukraine’s Trade Representative.
Ukraine’s grain exports are down 24% to 39mn tonnes so far in the July 2020 to June 2021 season, Reuters reported, citing agriculture ministry data. Exports included 15.13mn tonnes of wheat, 19.14mn tonnes of corn and 4.12mn tonnes of barley. So far, traders have used about 86% of the total wheat export quota of 17.5mn tonnes for the 2020-21 marketing season. Traders and the ministry have said it is unlikely exports will reach the full quota this season. The government has said exports could decline to 45.7mn tonnes in 2020-21 because of a smaller harvest, Reuters reported.
New markets opened this year for Ukraine’s dairy exports: Argentina, Japan, Kuwait, Lebanon, and Libya. Last year, Ukraine doubled imports of dairy products, to $304mn, while seeing exports fall by 17%, to $226.6mn. This year, Ukraine’s milk production continued its steady fall, dropping by 5.2% through April, compared to the same first four months of 2020. Of the 2.52mn tons, dairy production was stable at 902,000 tons, but household production fell by 7.6%, to 1.6mn tons. To turn around Ukraine’s declining dairy production, the government should extend $200mn a year in support to the sector, Vadym Chaharovsky, head of Ukraine’s Union of Dairy Enterprises, told reporters on Tuesday. By contrast, he said, the EU’s dairy subsidies amount to €10bn a year. Ukraine also should stop importing dairy products from Belarus. Five years ago, Belarus joined Russia’s embargo of Ukraine dairy products.
5.2.2 Current account dynamics
Ukraine’s current account surplus grew to $723mn in May, up from the $443mn the country earned in April (a result revised down from the previously reported surplus of $837mn) mostly due to a trade surplus swollen by strong exports and high commodity prices, the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) reported on June 30.
The goods trade balance switched to a surplus of $164mn from a $154mn deficit in April, while the surplus of trade in services declined to $376mn from $461mn in April.
32 UKRAINE Country Report July 2021 www.intellinews.com