KIEV, UKRAINE — Ukraine’s grain exports for the 2020-21 are off to a slow start with totals reaching 719,000 tonnes, down 57% from the 1.7 million tonnes exported a year earlier, Reuters reported.
As of July 17, the exports include 370,000 tonnes of corn, 159,000 tonnes of wheat and 186,000 tonnes of barley. It wasn’t clear if the exported grain was harvested in 2020 or 2019.
This spring, the nation put a cap on wheat exports of 20.2 million tonnes until the end of the 2019-20 market year. The move was in response to concerns about available domestic supplies due to COVID-19.
Ukraine harvested a record 75.1 million tonnes of grain in 2019 but it could decrease this year due to poor weather.
The country is the world’s fourth-largest wheat exporter with 56.5 million tonnes of grain sold in the 2019-20 season. The government has not given a grain export forecast for 2020-21, Reuters said.
