Ukraine’s grain exports increased by 25% to 1.3 million tonnes in the week ending March 2, despite the impossibility of free shipping in the Black Sea, government data showed Friday, March 3.
Currently, 140 ships are still waiting for inspection by the State Customs Committee, and around 25 of them already hold cargo onboard.
The rest of the vessels are still waiting to enter the Black Sea, unladen.
At the same time, the Russian inspectors continue to be accused of systematically delaying the inspection of ships heading into or out of the Bosphorus serving Ukrainian ports, while the movement of Russian ships in the Black Sea is not subject to regular inspections.
The weekly volume of corn declared for export amounted to 1 million tonnes, which is 70% above the previous week’s pace, bringing the total volume of corn exported since July 1 to 18.8 million tonnes.
That now puts exports on par with the same level as last year.
Major export destinations
During the reported week, China remained the leading destination for Ukrainian corn, with 227,809 tonnes declared, while 187,233 tonnes were declared to be shipped to Romania – the main transit destination from which grain is re-exported.
That was followed by the Netherlands with 131,984 tonnes, Spain (88,454 tonnes), Portugal (70,884 tonnes), and about 60,000 tonnes left for Hungary and Italy, respectively.
Ukrainian exporters registered 291,795 tonnes of wheat to go abroad during the reporting period, bringing total wheat exports since the start of the 2022-23 marketing year to 11.3 million tonnes, 37% behind the same stage last year.
Romania, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey took half of the volume during the reporting week – around 65,000 tonnes each – along with smaller volumes expected to be shipped to Poland, Bangladesh, and Italy.
Weekly barley exports amounted to just 13,234 tonnes, while the total exported volume since the start of the 2022-23 season amounted to 2 million tonnes, which is still 63% below last year’s pace.
The data was provided by the Ukrainian customs authorities and shows the goods that have been declared for export.
However, the figures do not always correspond to the volumes that physically left the country during the period.
