UKRAINE/RUSSIA NEWS UKRAINE: Ukraine exported 140,071 tonnes of sunflowerseeds from 1 May-15 May, bringing total exports since the beginning of the marketing year to a record 311,711 tonnes, due to lower demand from domestic crushers and low local prices prompting traders to increase exports, AgriCensus wrote on 18 May. However, the volumes reported by customs did not reflect exact volumes transported due to lengthy queues at the country's borders and along the Danube River delaying delivery, the report said. The main buyers included Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Turkey. The US Department of Agriculture forecasts that Ukrainian sunflowerseed exports would total around 350,000 tonnes by the end of the 2021/22 season. RUSSIA: The export duty on sunflower oil was set to increase by US$152.80/tonne – or 41% – to US$525/ tonne from 1 June, AgriCensus reported on 4 May. The duty was based on a floating index that valued sunflower oil at US$1,750/ tonne. The export duty on sunflower meal would increase by 9% to US$105/tonne, with both fees in place until the publication of an update, AgriCensus wrote. RUSSIA/UKRAINE: Following anecdotal evidence from the United Nations that Russian troops were seizing Ukrainian harvests – including wheat, barley and rye – the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence’s intelligence arm has said that Russian ships carrying stolen Ukrainian grain had reached the Mediterranean Sea and were likely to be heading to Syria, where it could be supplied to other Middle East countries, Fortune reported on 12 May. 4 OFI – JUNE 2022
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Attack on Ukrainian port despite talks on exports
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IN BRIEF
Russian president Vladimir Putin has said that he is prepared to allow “unhindered” grain exports from Ukraine ports in coordination with Turkey, Reuters reported on 30 May from a Kremlin account of talks between Putin and Turkish president Tayyip Erdogan. However, a Russian attack on silos at the Ukrainian port of Mykolaiv has raised doubts on the likelihood that Russia will allow Ukrainian crop exports, according to a 6 June AgriCensus report. "Traders are losing confidence Russia will live up to their expectations to allow Ukraine to export grain, after two warehouses with sunflower meal at Nikatera were hit by a rocket over the weekend," Terry Reilly, senior grain and oilseed commodity analyst at Futures International, said. With prices of grain, cooking oil, fertiliser and energy soaring since Russia's invasion of Ukraine
on 24 February, the United Nations (UN) says a global food crisis is deepening and is trying to broker a deal to unblock Ukraine's grain exports, according to the Reuters report. “During the discussion of the situation in Ukraine, emphasis was placed on ensuring safe navigation in the Black and Azov seas and eliminating the mine threat in their waters,” the Kremlin reportedly said of the talks between Putin and Erdogan. Putin, according to the Kremlin account, had added that if sanctions against Russia were lifted, it would allow Russia to “export significant volumes of fertilisers and agricultural products.” It was not immediately clear which Ukrainian ports Putin was speaking about, Reuters wrote. Ukraine's main grain export ports include Chornomorsk, Mykolaiv, Odesa, Kherson and Yuzhny. Erdogan said that Turkey was ready to support any peace efforts between Ukraine and Russia, and was prepared to take on the role of third-party observer to ensure that any agreement was followed by both sides, once reached. Against this backdrop, the UN and the Russian government have had “constructive discussions” aimed at increasing grain and fertiliser exports from Russia to global markets, Reuters reported UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric as saying. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterresis is trying to broker what he calls a “package deal” to resume both Ukrainian food exports and Russian food and fertiliser exports, according to Reuters.
Crop forecasts as sowing nears end Ukraine's spring crop sowing campaign reached 12.64M ha or 89% of the planned area as of 26 May, AgriCensus reported the country's agriculture ministry as saying. Further progress was expected to be limited with about a third of the area normally available to Ukrainian farmers – some 12M ha – inaccessible due to occupation by Russian troops, close proximity of farmland to hostilities, landmines in fields and damaged artillery, tanks and other material in liberated territories, the 26 May report said. With spring sowing coming to an end, it was possible to make estimates on the potential harvest for 2022, AgriCensus wrote. The Ukrainian Club of Agrarian Business (UCAB) forecast that this year, Ukraine could harvest close to 50M tonnes of grain and 16M tonnes of oilseeds, specifically: • Wheat: 18M tonnes (against 32.2M tonnes in 2021)
• Corn: 25.7M tonnes (42.1M tonnes in 2021) • Barley: 5.2M tonnes (9.4M tonnes in 2021) • Other grain crops: 1.4M tonnes (2.3M tonnes in 2021) • Sunflower: 10.6M tonnes (6.4M tonnes in 2021) • Soyabeans: 3M tonnes (3.5M tonnes 2021) • Rapeseed: 2.7M tonnes (2.9M tonnes in 2021) "Soyabean and rapeseed show the lowest gross harvest reduction due to the relatively small weight of the crop combined with a high price, which facilitates logistics in exports," said Svitlana Lytvyn, a Ukraine-based analyst at UCAB. "Therefore, some farmers have increased these crops." However, total gross harvest would be reduced due to a lower sown area and reduced yields resulting from less fertilisers, and other yield inputs. www.ofimagazine.com
13/06/2022 15:05:42
