Page 27 - UKRRptApr19

5.2.1 Import/export dynamics
External 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 balance
2015 2016
2017 2018 E F
Exports (US$bn) 61.4 82.5 52.1 65.6 83.7 86.5 81.7 65.4 47.6 44.9 60.2 60.8
Imports (US$bn) 69.5 96.8 54 69.6 93.8 100.9 97.4 70 49 50.3 54.6 57.2
Trade balance -8.1 -14.4 -2 -4 -10.1 -14.3 -15.6 -4.6 -1.5 -2.9 -5.3 -6.4 (US$bn)
Trade balance -5.7 -7.8 -1.7 -2.9 -6.2 -8.2 -8.7 -3.5 -1.6 -5.8 -4.4 -5.9 (% of GDP)
Source: ICU
Ukraine is expected to displace Russia this year as the largest Black Sea grain exporter . Russia is to export 42mn tons this year, 20% below last year’s record 52.4mn tons. By contrast, Ukraine is to export 49mn tons in the year that ends in June. Kommersant reports from Moscow that Russian Agriculture Ministry officials are calling exporters asking them to slow sales. Concerned about meeting domestic demand, Rosselkhoznadzor, the state food safety agency, is in go slow mode. stretching quality checks at ports from one day to five days or more. Yulia Melano, a food safety agency representative, is quoted saying longer checks respond to quality complaints from Indonesia, Vietnam and African countries.
Chickens to Ghana, eggs to Singapore, milk to Macedonia, and sheep to the Emirates – these are some of the 85 new markets developed last year for Ukraine’s food exports. “Last year, our country expanded the geography of our products exports and the number of enterprises that received the right to export food of animal origin increased as well," said Volodymyr Lapa, Head of Ukraine’s Food Safety and Consumer Protection agency. “This allowed to level the economic impact of the loss of the market of the Russian Federation and contributed to raising the level of Ukraine as reliable trading partner.” Last year, Ukraine’s food exports to the EU grew by 8.7% y/y to $6.3bn.
Ukraine exported half abn dollars worth of chicken meat last year – four times the combined total of beef, pork and sausage exports. According to the Food Export Council, meat exports were: chicken -- $507mn, 326,000 tons; beef – $125mn, 42,000 tons; pork -- $3.7mn, 1,700 tons; and sausages – 439 tons , $1.3mn.
Wood exports dropped 40% y/y to only 527,000 cubic meters, a tiny portion of the national cut. The EU is pressuring Ukraine to export more wood to feed its wood products industries. Ukraine restricts exports of raw logs in an attempt to rebuild the furniture and milling industries at home.
27 UKRAINE Country Report April 2019 www.intellinews.com