Ukrainian farmers exported 0.6 million tons of grain in the first days of the new year

According to operational data of the State Customs Service, as of January 5, within the 2023/24 marketing year, Ukraine exported 18.999 million tons of grain and leguminous crops, of which 607,000 tons have been shipped since the beginning of the current month.

As noted by the Ministry of Agrarian Policy of Ukraine, the specified indicator of seasonal export is still inferior to last year, when 23.432 million tons were shipped as of January 6, of which 686 thousand tons were shipped in January

It should be noted that according to the forecasts of the Ministry of Economy of Ukraine, under the current conditions, the export of Ukrainian products will grow in the coming years. As the First Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine - Minister of Economy Yulia Svyridenko stated, the global goal is to return the volume of exports of Ukrainian goods and services to the level of 2021. The official noted that the foundation for increasing exports has already been laid. So, in August of last year, Ukraine launched an alternative sea corridor, and now grain, metal and other goods are exported via this route. Thanks to this, in December 2023, relative to November, exports by sea transport increased by 30.7% (by 7.34 million tons) compared to November. Also, an important decision for increasing export volumes was the introduction of a unique mechanism for insurance of ships against war risks, which allows to reduce the cost of grain transportation insurance to 1-1.25%.

Last year, river logistics also developed in Ukraine. The carrying capacity of the Danube has been increased, the transit of Ukrainian goods through neighboring states has increased. The plans for 2024 are to further invest in this direction. Currently, Ukraine aims to double the transit to this country to 4 million tons per month. However, land routes remain an important logistics direction for Ukrainian exporters, because Europe is primarily a transit opportunity for them to trade with countries in Asia, Africa and America.

It should be noted that last year export revenues reached one of the lowest figures in the last decade, which was a consequence of problems in logistics. This is an expected and objective result, which was a consequence of problems in logistics. Currently, Ukraine is slowly solving them. In this regard, the Ministry of Economy has already noted that by the end of 2023, the physical volumes of exports in Ukraine have increased to almost 100 million tons of goods. This is 112 thousand tons more than in 2022. However, in terms of value, the annual export figure decreased by 18.7% to 35.8 billion US dollars. In addition, last year Ukraine had a significant deficit in trade in goods amounting to $26.4 billion. It was caused by two key factors - problems in logistics and defense needs in 2023. So in 2024, the government will continue to work to strengthen export logistics through the operation of air defense systems and find new ways to export goods and services. Localization of enterprises of the military-industrial complex in Ukraine will also contribute to reducing the deficit in foreign trade.