Ukraine is among top-5 largest exporters of wheat, corn and barley. The share of export amounted to 70-73% in three recent seasons. 99% of the foreign supplies were transported through the seaports that are currently blocked due to the Russian military aggression.
Ukraine has exported 18.1 million tons of wheat since the start of 2021-2022 MY as of February 24 (81% of the expected potential estimated at 22.5 million tons in February), 5.7 million tons of barley (95%, 6 million tons) and 17.9 million tons of corn (60%, 30 million tons).
Today, checkpoints at the borders with the EU’s countries are the main way to export Ukrainian agricultural products. Railway checkpoints at the borders with Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Hungary are the key routs for Ukrainian grain.
Railway statistics showed that 921.6 thousand tons of corn, 7 thousand tons of wheat and 4.9 thousand tons of barley were loaded for export through land border checkpoints in March-May.
Unfortunately, the capacity of railway border checkpoints is much lower compared to that of seaports. Railways of Ukraine and neighbor countries require time to adapt to the sharp growth of transportation volumes.
Taking into account the abovementioned factors, APK-Inform forecasts wheat export from Ukraine in 2021-2022 MY at 18.8 million tons (+13% YoY), barley – 5.7 million tons (+37%) and corn – 21.2 million tons (-11%). (APK-Inform/Business World Magazine)
