Ukraine will continue to export wheat despite the fact that the quota agreed with traders for the 2019/20 season has been used up by the end of June, deputy economy minister Taras Vysotskiy told Reuters on Tuesday.
"We are not planning any restrictions," said Vysotskiy, adding that exports would continue. The agricultural consultancy APK-Inform announced on Tuesday that the wheat export quota of 20.2 million tons was exhausted
The Ukrainian government and the country's largest traders sign a memorandum each year that sets out the maximum volume of each grain available for export for that season.
A senior government official said last month that Ukraine, the fourth largest wheat exporter in the world, would be willing to ban wheat exports if sales exceeded dealers' agreed limits. The Ministry of Economy also said it would not increase the wheat export quota for the current season.
Last year's wheat harvest far exceeded domestic consumption, but Bäcker and Müller urged the government in April to limit exports to prevent bread prices from rising.
Ukraine harvested more than 28 million tons of wheat in 2019, and the government has announced that current ending stocks could meet local demand for at least the next six months.
The government did not release a figure for the expected stocks at the end of June, although the official statistics service announced that the stocks of large and medium-sized agricultural companies were 4.1 million tons of wheat as of April 1.
Prime Minister Denys Shmygal said earlier this month that Ukraine should export the surplus or "we will get grain that just needs to be thrown in the trash."
According to an estimate by APK-Inform, Ukraine is expected to consume 8.3 million tons of wheat this season, and the final stocks in 2019/20 could amount to 1.7 million tons.
Source
Hansa Terminhandel GmbH
