Ukrainian grain exports slow despite strong demand, weak hryvnia

Ukrainian grain exports have now reached 27.5 million mt, 7.7% lower than at the same stage last year despite a competitive currency and strong global demand, data from Ukraine’s consumer protection agency showed Wednesday.

This includes 13.2 million mt of wheat – 7.3 million of which was milling wheat and 6 million mt was feed wheat – a 3% decrease on the same stage last year.

Feed wheat has been one of the few bright spots for exporters, with shipped volumes increasing 15.4% year-on-year.

Milling wheat sales, however, have struggled to keep up with increased exports from neighbouring Russia, falling 13.1% year-on-year.

Corn and barley have also struggled to match previous years sales, despite strong global demand for both and a competitively-low hryvnia.

Corn exports are at 9.7 million mt, 12.6% lower year-on-year, while barley has fallen 14.9% to 4 million mt.

Oilseed exports have jumped well ahead of previous years, however, up 36.7% to 4.1 million mt.

Rapeseed sales have driven the surge, more than doubling to 2 million mt, while soybean exports have remained largely steady – up 1.4% year-on-year to 2.1 million mt.

Ukrainian oilseed export volumes, almost all of which go into the EU, put further pressure on US soybean sellers who are looking for new destinations having lost out to Brazil in China.

The USDA recently revised up its ending stocks for US soybeans by 1.6 million mt to 14.4 million mt.