KYIV- Ukraine’s grain exports have fallen to around 13.4 million metric tons so far in the 2023/24 July-June marketing season, agriculture ministry data showed on Monday.
The ministry said that by Dec. 5 last year, Ukraine had exported 18.3 million tons of grain.
The volume exported this season includes 5.9 million tons of wheat, 6.5 million tons of corn and 876,000 tons of barley. In the previous season by this point, Ukraine had exported 6.9 million tons of wheat, 9.8 million tons of corn and 1.48 million tons of barley.
The ministry said traders had exported 305,000 tons of grain so far in December compared with 393,000 tons by Dec. 5, 2022.
The ministry gave no explanation for the drop but traders and farmers’ unions have said blocked Ukrainian Black Sea ports and Russian attacks on the country’s Danube River ports were key factors.
Ukraine has traditionally shipped most of its exports through its deep water Black Sea ports.
Ukraine’s government expects a harvest of 79 million tons of grain and oilseeds in 2023, with its 2023/24 exportable surplus totaling about 50 million tons.
Ukraine needs more air defences to protect its grain export routes as well as regions bordering Russia, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said earlier, as he addressed an international summit on food security in Kyiv.
“There is a deficit of air defence – that is no secret,” Zelenskiy told the Grain from Ukraine summit, which was attended by senior officials from European countries, including Swiss President Alain Berset and Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte.
Zelenskiy was speaking after Russia attacked Ukraine with 75 drones overnight, the biggest drone assault of the war. The joint press conference of the three leaders was cut short by another air raid siren. – Reuters
