Ukraine’s grain exports have risen to 2.56 million metric tons so far in the 2023/24 July-June season from 2 million tons at the same time of the season last year, Agriculture Ministry data showed on Monday.
Exports have been affected since Russia quit a United Nations-backed grain deal last month but the ministry’s data did not give a breakdown on exports since the deal collapsed.
The total volume of grain exports so this season included 1.27 million tons of corn, 977,000 tons of wheat and 329,000 tons of barley.
That compared with exports of 1.3 million tons of corn, 467,000 tons of wheat and 180,000 tons of barley as of Aug. 6, 2022, the data showed.
Exports for the entire 2022/23 season were almost 49 million tons, exceeding the previous season’s 48.4 million tons.
Most of the volume was exported via deep Black Sea ports under the deal brokered by the United Nations and Turkey last July to tackle a global food crisis worsened by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and blockade of Ukrainian ports.
Russia left the deal on July 17 after saying its demands to ease sanctions on its own grain and fertilizer exports had not been met. Moscow also complained that not enough grain had reached poor countries.
A major grain grower and exporter, Ukraine’s grain output dropped to about 53 million tons in clean weight in calendar 2022, down from a record 86 million tons in 2021.
The ministry has said the crop could fall to around 46 million tons of grain in 2023.