Page 35 - UKRRptSept19

Six years after shipping its first load of corn to China, Ukraine now is the largest supplier. This year, Ukraine is to ship 4 million tons of corn to China, supplying 80% of its import needs. In 2011/2012, the US shipped 5.1 million tons of corn, accounting for almost 100% of all Chinese imports. “The Black Sea country is expanding corn exports fast,” writes Andrey Sizov Jr., a regional expert. “Ten years ago, Ukraine shipped only 5 million tons of corn to other countries, while in the current 2018/19 season exports are expected to reach 30 million tons, with EU, China, and Egypt being major buyers.”
In July and August, Ukraine increased its ‘soft wheat’ exports to the EU six-fold, becoming the largest supplier to the EU, Ukragroconsult reports, citing European Commission statistics. ‘Soft wheat’ is a low gluten, high starch wheat used for pastry and cake flours. By exporting 189,000 tons to the EU, Ukraine accounted for 42% of supplies this summer. By contrast, EU imports of soft wheat fell to 42,000 tons, falling from one-third of EU imports to 10%.
Russia, the world’s largest wheat exporter, expects to see sales down 15% y-o-y for August, to 4 million tons, Reuters reports from Moscow, citing SovEcon. By contrast, Ukraine’s wheat exports hit 4.1 million tons -- up 55% -- for July and August, the first two months of the marketing year. Russian sales are down as farmers wait for better world prices and the government slows export certificates, fearing the political cost of a rise in bread prices.
Sunflower oil exports are up 9% y-o-y for the marketing season that ended in August. Ukraine, the world's largest exporter of sunflower oil, has exported 5.2 million tons, APK-Inform said. Ukraine’s top three markets are India, Turkey, and China.
Japan has agreed to allow the imports of poultry from Ukraine, reports Ukraine’s State Service for Food Safety and Consumer Protection. Over the last two years, 14 new countries have allowed imports of poultry from Ukraine. Seven new countries have opened up to imports of eggs from Ukraine. During the first half of this years, Ukraine’s poultry exports rose to 211,000 tons, largely to Saudi Arabia, the Netherlands and Slovakia. In July, Ukraine’s industrial poultry production was up 16% y-o-y.
President Zelenskiy has signed a law ratifying the Israel-Ukraine Free Trade Agreement. The Rada passed the law last month. After Israel’s Sept. 17 parliamentary elections, the new Knesset is expected to ratify the law.
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vows to wrap up free trade talks with Ukraine and to more than double bilateral trade, to $10bn a year. In a joint press conference with President Zelenskiy in Ankara on Wednesday evening, Erdogan said of the decade-old free trade talks: “Finally, the time has come to finalize the negotiation process on concluding a free trade agreement, negotiations on which have been going on for many years.”
Ukraine’s imports of coking coal plunged 40% m/m 640 kt in June,
according to a July 11 report by Interfax-Ukraine, which cited Ukrmetallurgprom, an industry association. The 1H19 imports were 5.65mmt, a 2% y/y drop. Recall, in April the Russian government decided to restrict exports of Russian coal, including coking coal, to Ukraine starting from June 1, allowing such exports only under permits issued by Russia’s Ministry of Economic Development. Russian exporters of coking coal obtained permits to export 500-550 kt of the material to Ukraine in July, according to a July 25
35 UKRAINE Country Report September 2019 www.intellinews.com