Україна активно завершує збирання зернових: що далі ? Ukraine is actively completing grain harvesting: what's next?

As of the end of the second decade of August, Ukrainian farmers harvested grain and leguminous crops from a total area of ​​6.713 million hectares. This is 61% of the planned pre-harvest area. At the same time, the gross harvest of grain is estimated at 28.5 million tons with an average yield of 42.4 centners per hectare. In particular, 21.7 million tons of wheat and almost 5.5 million tons of barley have been collected so far. As for oil crops, rapeseed has already been threshed on 1.23 million hectares. Also, the first information on harvesting sunflowers has already been published.

It should be noted that Ukraine is an agrarian country with significant export potential, therefore there are plans to export goods to world markets. It is known that currently the maximum export volume of Ukrainian wheat in the 2024/25 marketing year is proposed to be set at 15.2 million tons. This indicator is included in the appendix to the Memorandum of Understanding for the current season between the Ministry of Agriculture and specialized organizations of the domestic grain market. As for other grain crops, there are no volumes of their permissible export in the draft annex. It is also known that grain processors have already proposed to divide the volume of wheat, which is proposed to be allowed to be exported from Ukraine in 2024/25 MR, depending on the quality of the grain. As IA "APK-Inform" learned, such a proposal was voiced during the discussion of the annex to the Memorandum of Understanding between the Ministry of Agrarian Policy of Ukraine and grain market participants. This is a rather ambiguous issue, since, according to operational data of the State Customs Service, since the beginning of 2024/25, Ukraine has exported 5.788 million tons of grain and leguminous crops, of which 2.086 million tons were shipped in the current month. The total export of Ukrainian flour since the beginning of the season is estimated at 7.4 thousand tons.

Currently, the volume of the quota for the export of wheat from Ukraine for the current marketing year is proposed to be set at the level of 16.2 million tons, while the quota for the shipment of grain with a protein content of 11% and above is proposed at the level of 4.6 million tons. As reported by acting of the Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine Taras Vysotskyi, a memorandum between the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and grain market participants was signed, and a discussion is currently underway on an addendum to the memorandum, namely the agreement of positions regarding the wheat export quota. He also added that there is currently no question of restricting the export of other crops.

In general, according to the government official, Ukraine currently has no significant obstacles to the export of agricultural products by sea, road and rail transport. At the same time, the throughput capacity of the entire infrastructure allows exporting the same volumes as before the start of the full-scale invasion, which is more than 7 million tons of agricultural products every month. Taras Vysotskyi also emphasized that there are currently no reasons to raise prices for products related to foreign trade. In addition, according to him, due to a certain stabilization in the energy system of Ukraine, sharp price fluctuations are not expected in the near future.