Weekly Ukrainian grain exports jump 85% to 472k, total 2.34m mt

Weekly grain exports from Ukraine jumped by almost 85% to 472,000 mt compared to last week as bulk shipping options out of the country improved dramatically following the UN and Turkey-brokered deep sea ports deal with Russia. 

As a result of the surge, total exports since the beginning of the 2022/23 season jumped to 2.34 million mt, according to data from the Ministry of Agrarian Policy released Friday.

However, compared with last season, Ukrainian grain exports up to this August lag well behind last year’s figures, which were almost double.

Wheat exports from the country in the week up to August 12 amounted to 145,000 mt, which is almost 75% higher than the week before, while total wheat exports since the beginning of the 2022/23 marketing year amounted to 589,000 mt, or below 75% of the same level last year.

The main export destinations for Ukrainian wheat were Romania and Turkey with shares of 37% and 34%, or or 83,531 mt and 72,554 mt, respectively.

Compared with the August 2021/22 season, Ukrainian wheat exports in the current season 2022/23 are almost a quarter of the volume exported previously.

Weekly barley exports increased by 61% compared to the previous week to 37,000 mt, but lag almost 9 times from last August’s indicator.

The lion’s share - some 57% - of Ukrainian barley exports headed for Romania, with 33,863 mt.

The aggregate volume of Ukrainian barley exports since the beginning of the 2022/23 season increased to 202,000 mt, which is 88% lower than last year's level.

Last week corn exports increased by 96% compared to the first week of August and amounted to 288,000 mt, double the volume exported in the same period of August 2021.

This volume became possible due to the beginning of the grain corridor within the framework of the agreement between Turkey, the UN and Russia, and the departure of ships with Ukrainian corn from the Ukrainian ports of Odesa and Chornomorsk.

The bulk of the corn volume was distributed among three buyers 20% or 88,170 mt for Romania, 19% or 83,581 mt for Poland, and 19% or 82,957 mt for Turkey.

Since the beginning of the 2022/23 marketing year, corn exports amounted to 1.54 million mt, which is three times the value of last year on the same date.