Page 33 - UKRRptMay21

Ukraine’s grain exports could rebound by 19% in the upcoming marketing year, reaching 54mn tons, predicted APK-Inform, the agriculture consultancy. Ukraine could export: 29.50mn tons of corn; 20mn tons of wheat; and 4.3mn tons of barley. In the last decade, Ukraine more than quadrupled its wheat exports, reaching a volume of 17.5mn tons last year. Today, Ukraine accounts for almost one tenth of global wheat exports.
Ukraine could double and even triple grain exports to China, said Mykola Gorbachev, the President of the Ukrainian Grain Association after signing a cooperation agreement with China’s Association of Small and Medium Enterprises. Noting that Ukraine already has exported 10mn tons of grain to China since June, he said: “Today, the lion's share of grain exports to China is corn and barley.” The next step is to sign bilateral sanitary agreements with China for “wheat, sorghum, peas and other crops,” he said. The two groups agreed to establish a Sino-Ukrainian Council for International Cooperation in Agriculture.
Ukraine, the world's largest sunflower oil exporter, is expected to increase sun oil exports by 17% in the upcoming marketing year, to 6.5mn tons. With cooking oil price hikes pushing up Ukraine’s March inflation, the Economy Ministry and the Ukroliyaprom Trade Association agreed Monday to limit sunflower oil exports to 5.38mn tons in the marketing year that ends August 31. Due to high cooking oil prices worldwide, Ukraine’s sunflower oil sales in calendar year 2020 were $5.3bn, a 24% increase over 2019 sales.
During the first quarter of Brexit, Ukraine's exports to the UK increased by 38% y/y, with IT services emerging as the top sector, said Vadym Prystiako, Ukraine’s Ambassador to Britain during the Ukrainian Prism discussion. “At this rate, Britain will become one of our main trade partners by the end of this year,” he said. Noting that the Britain is now one of the top five consumers of Ukrainian services, he added: “IT is now greater than the traditional groups, such as metal, agricultural products, oil.” On December 16 2021, two weeks before Brexit went into effect, the Rada ratified a new Free Trade and Strategic Partnership between Ukraine and the UK.
Despite Covid, France-Ukraine trade remained strong last year, falling slightly to $2.1bn. French brands account for about 20% of new car sales in Ukraine, with Renault the most popular. Last year, France exported $180mn worth of wine to Ukraine. After Ukraine lifted import duties on EU wine in January, this figure is to grow. About 180 French companies operate in Ukraine, controlling $1.1bn in foreign investment, the Kyiv Post reported last week in its annual France-Ukraine edition.
Corn exports are down 25% y/y in the first half of the October-September 2020 marketing season, reported APK-Inform. Of the 15.9mn tons exported so far, the top markets were: China – 6mn tons; EU – 5mn tons; and Egypt – 1.7mn tons. This year, Ukraine is expected to export 23mn tons of its 30-million-ton crop. Poor weather and reduced plantings depressed the harvest.
33 UKRAINE Country Report May 2021 www.intellinews.com