By Daryna Krasnolutska and Kateryna Choursina
Ukraine will continue to export grains and has no plans to limit shipments, Agriculture Minister Mykola Prysyazhnyuk told reporters in Kiev.
Grain exports stalled in February, the minister said today. “We do not plan any limits so far.” Prysyazhnyuk declined to give a wheat export forecast.
Ukraine’s grain exports declined by 5.5 percent in the first 13 days of February to 469,000 metric tons, agricultural researcher UkrAgroConsult said in an e-mailed statement today.
Prime Minister Mykola Azarov’s government asked grain traders last week to limit wheat exports after winter plantings damaged by drought in the autumn were aggravated by several weeks of freezing temperatures.
February exports included 86,500 tons of wheat which went to Italy, Jordan andIsrael. Ukraine also shipped 374,000 tons of corn to Egypt, Morocco and Israel, the Kiev-based researcher said.
Ukraine will have to replant half of its winter grain areas, or 3.5 million hectares (8.6 million acres) in the spring, Azarov said on Feb. 10.
The Agriculture Ministry reduced its grain export forecast for the marketing year, which started on July 1, to 23 million to 24 million tons from 26 million to 27 million tons, Serhiy Kvasha, head of the agriculture markets department, said on Dec. 5.
To contact the reporters on this story: Daryna Krasnolutska in Kiev atdkrasnolutsk; Kateryna Choursina in Moscow atkchoursina
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Claudia Carpenter atccarpenter2
