Ukraine: ports to continue grain shipment

According to data of the monitoring of APK-Inform Agency, to date the Ukrainian ports actively continue to realize grains and by-products loadings in accordance to the personnel arrangements.

Thus, for example during the last week Illichevsk port shipped 34.5 thsd tonnes of wheat, and over 48 thsd tonnes of maize. Odessa Commercial Sea Port port continued maize shipment works. Also, the ports continue the active loading of oilseeds and sunflower oil.

According to the market operators, the delays during the loadings really exist, but they appear due to the errors in the documents, introduced for the commodities licensing and can be removed during the few days.

As of the current moment there are no artificially delayed vessels in the Ukrainian ports. All the export operations are being realized in time, as a result the country gets grains and oilseeds, and also by-products stable export trading.

As a reminder, previously Leonid Kozachenko, the President of Ukrainian Agrarian Confederation, announced that grains export trading is still blocked, due to the fact that the Ministry of Economy does not issue the licenses to grain trading enterprises. According to his data, the situation caused grain volumes accumulation in the ports at the level of 183 thsd tonnes.

As of December 3, Ukraine completed soybean harvesting campaign

According to operative data, as of December 3, 2010, Ukrainian agrarians harvested 41.48 mln tonnes of grains throughout the areas of 14.57 mln ha, which totaled 99.7% of the planned areas. The average yield of grains and leguminous plants totaled 28.5 c/ha.

In particular, Ukrainian agrarians produced 12.05 mln tonnes of maize throughout the areas of 2.62 mln ha (99% of the forecast). The average yield of the crop totaled 45.9 c/ha.

Besides, as of the reporting date, Ukrainian agricultural enterprises harvested soybean throughout 1.038 mln ha (100% of the forecast). The production volumes totaled 1.671 mln tonnes with the average yield of 16.1 c/ha.

Ukraine: 55% of winter crops sowings to face the good conditions

According to data from regions, as of December 2, 2010, winter grain sowings in Ukraine faced good condition throughout nearly 4.45 mln ha, which totaled 54.6% from the general winter grain sowing areas. 3.08 mln ha of winter grain sowings, or 37.8%, faced rather satisfactory condition, marked the Ministry of Agrarian Policy of Ukraine. 615.8 thsd ha (7.6%) of winter crops sowings showed the weak and thinned condition.

Winter wheat showed good condition indices throughout the areas of 3.7 mln ha or 56% of the general areas, satisfactory condition – 2.43 mln ha (36.7%), weak and thinned condition – 0.48 mln ha (7.3%). Winter barley showed good condition indices throughout 0.51 mln ha or 42.3% of the areas, satisfactory condition – 0.56 mln ha (46.9%), weak and thinned condition – 0.13 mln ha (10.8%).

Winter rye sowings faced good and satisfactory condition indices throughout 224 thsd ha (69.4% of the areas), and 89.3 thsd ha (27.6%), respectively.

As of the reporting date, rapeseed sowing areas faced the good condition throughout 53.4% of the sowings, satisfactory condition – 36%, weak and thinned condition – 10.6%.

The general areas of 8.2 mln ha of winter grain sowing areas faced appearance of seedlings throughout 8.15 mln ha of the sowing areas.

Ukraine. Cold snap not affecting winter crops

The sharp decline in temperatures recorded on the territory of Ukraine did not have a negative impact on winter crops. This was reported by head of agrometeorology department with the Ukrainian Hydrometeorological Center Tetiana Adamenko.

The cold snap was short-lived, in Chernihiv, Sumy, Rivne and Volyn regions the temperature dropped to -24-27°C degrees, but by that time snow cover had already been established there," she said.

According to Adamenko, today the weather is typical of the period. "The autumn growing season has delayed for almost a month, making it possible for winter crops to grow up and get the normal state of hibernation. Now the halt of the growing season - it is on time and correctly. For now we do not see any threat," she added.

Ukraine: Ministry of Economy not to prepare the offer for grain export quotas prolongation

The Ministry of Economy of Ukraine does not prepare the offer for grain export quotas prolongation, stated Anatoliy Maksyuta, the First Deputy Minister of Economy.

According to A.Maksyuta, the Government still works with the current quotas. The part of the quotas is not distributed yet, due to the applications absence. The Ministry does not develop the offer for limitation prolongation.

Besides, the Deputy Minister stated that the term of consideration of the Decree Project, which the Ministry of Economy works out, about opening of grain exports to the countries, which signed the agreement about Free Trade Zone with Ukraine, is not stated yet.

To date it is impossible to say, whether the offer will be introduced for the Cabinet of Ministers consideration, stated A.Maksyuta.

As a reminder, on November 16, 2010, Nikholay Prysiazhnyuk, the Minister of Agrarian Policy of Ukraine, stated that grain export quotas will be prolonged after January 1, 2011.

Grain exports from Ukraine is still blocked

Grain exports from Ukraine is still blocked, because the Ministry of Economy does not provide the corresponding licenses to grain trading companies, declared Leonid Kozachenko, the President of Ukrainian Agrarian Confederation, on December 2.

L.Kozachenko reminded that the specially founded committee distributed 2.182 mln tonnes of quotas for grain exports from Ukraine between trading companies on November 12. At the same time, the planned meeting of the special committee on distribution of quotas for agricultural commodities exports on December 2, where the committee planned to continue allocating the quotas, was postponed on December 8, 2010, for some unknown reasons.

According to data of L.Kozachenko, such situation led to the fact that to date nearly 183 thsd tonnes of grains for the further export trading are blocked in the ports of Ukraine.

The President of Ukrainian Agrarian Confederation marked that from the beginning of the current marketing year, Ukraine exported nearly 5 mln tonnes of grains, as opposed to 11.5 mln tonnes in the same period of the previous MY. At the same time, the expert considers that in the current marketing year Ukraine is able to supply 13-14 mln tonnes of grains on the world market without serious consequences.

L.Kozachenko has doubts that Ukraine will manage to export the remaining 8 mln tonnes of grains till the end of the current marketing year, if the Government releases export trading with grains.

According to him, the issue with maize exports is especially important nowadays. L.Kozachenko marked that in the current year Ukraine produced nearly 12 mln tonnes of maize as opposed to 10 mln tonnes in the previous year, and exported 640 thsd tonnes of the grain only from the beginning of the current MY, as opposed to 2 mln tonnes in the same period of 2009/10 MY.

L.Kozachenko also informed that due to the absence of maize export trading, the prices essentially fell down, and in March 2011 the prices will continue decreasing due to the influence of the world tendencies. As a result, the President of Ukrainian Agrarian Confederation offered to immediately cancel maize export quotas. According to him, Nikholay Prysiazhnyuk, the Minister of Agrarian Policy, supports the initiative.

As a reminder, yesterday agrarian nongovernmental organizations applied to Viktor Yanukovych, the President of Ukraine, to order to the Government to cancel maize export quotas immediately.

From October 19 to December 31, 2010, Ukraine imposed quotas for exports of 2.7 mln tonnes of grains, including 0.5 mln tonnes of wheat, 0.2 mln tonnes of barley, 2 mln tonnes of maize, 1 thsd tonnes of rye and buckwheat each.

Egypt aiming at Ukrainian wheat

Egypt’s Premier Ahmed Nazif considers Ukraine capable of meeting Egyptian wheat needs.

“We have agreed on the need to establish direct contacts, as Ukraine can meet the needs of the Egyptian wheat market,” said Nazif at the 6th meeting of the Ukrainian-Egyptian commission for economic and scientific and technological cooperation, which took place in Egypt.

According to him, the issue of Ukrainian wheat deliveries to Egypt was discussed during his meeting with Premier Mykola Azarov.

As reported before, Azarov paid an official visit to Egypt on November 24-25. Previously, Egypt repeatedly declared its intention to expand the range of purchases of Ukrainian agricultural commodities.

Please remember that Egyptian Agriculture and Land Reclamation Minister Amin Abaza promised in December 2008 to facilitate the registration of the state-owned joint-stock company Khlib Ukrainy at Egypt’s food administration for participation in international tenders within the framework of the government program of grain supply to the country. Egypt refused Ukrainian grain in November 2010.

We previously reported that Azarov had promised to study the possibility of granting state scholarships to Egyptian students for their education in Ukraine.

Ukraine: agrarians to ask to change the Tax Codex and cancel maize export quotas

Ukrainian Agrarian Confederation, the Agrarian Union of Ukraine, the Association of farmers and private landowners of Ukraine, Ukrainian Grain Association, the Union of Dairy enterprises of Ukraine appealed to Viktor Yanukovych, the President of Ukraine, regarding the urgent necessity to change the Tax Codex clauses concerning the interests of agrarians.

According to the announcement of the press-service of Ukrainian Agrarian Confederation, it is about the VAT taxation of grains and technical crops operations, and also about dairy and cattle-breeding support system in Ukraine.

Representatives of the non-governmental organizations of the Ukrainian agricultural complex note that cancellation of the VAT taxation of oilseeds and grains trade operations, provided by the new Tax Codex, will cause losses at the level of 10-12 bln UAH annually.

The profile organizations appeal to the President to impose a veto on the Tax Codex, in order to take into account the interests of agrarians during its updating. Also the agrarians offered to leave the current order of the VAT taxation of oilseeds and grains trade operations and its compensation during export trading, in order to provide the measures, the agrarians offered to exclude the art.19 of transitional positions from the Codex text.

Besides, the agrarians appealed to the President to order to the Government to cancel maize export quotas immediately.

Ukraine ready to export 100,000 tons of wheat to Lebanon in 2011

Ukraine is ready to export 100,000 tons of wheat to Lebanon in 2011, Ukrainian Economy Minister Vasyl Tsushko informed at a press conference after the first joint meeting of the Ukrainian-Lebanese intergovernmental commission on trade and economic cooperation on Tuesday.

He noted that this proposal had been put forward by the Lebanese side, which is interested in buying Ukrainian wheat. According to Tsushko, Ukraine introduced quotas for grain crops, including for wheat, and these quotas will be in effect until January 1, 2011. The economy minister said that if the quotas are lifted, then the question of grain exports would be resolved by the economic entities of both countries, and if the quotas are extended for 2011, "we will think about how to export 100,000 tons of wheat to Lebanon."

High grain prices in Kazakhstan affect export trading

High prices for grains in Kazakhstan provide rather negative effect at export trading operations. To date, prices for grains in the country vary within the range of 39-45 thsd tenge/t (264-305 USD/t), declared Orazbek Carsenbi, the director of the broker company Torino-06 Ltd.

According to him, due to the droughts in the current season, Kazakhstan produced 13.6 mln tonnes in bunker weight, a decrease of 2 times compared to 2009 results (21 mln tonnes). O.Carsenbi informed that to date, the regular customers purchase Kazakh grains with rather high reluctance. The customers are indignant over the high prices, but Kazakh agrarians do not plan to make any discounts.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture of Kazakhstan, in October the country managed to export 840 thsd tonnes of grains. We should mark that Kazakhstan supplies own grains to 40 countries of the world. According to estimations of various experts, high prices for Kazakh grains will keep till ending of the temporary ban for Russian flour exports. As a reminder, the reporting ban will be canceled on January 1, 2011.

UAC: Ukraine able to triple foodstuff production

Today, food production in Ukraine is estimated at USD 21 billion, President of the Ukrainian Agrarian Confederation (UAC) Leonid Kozachenko addressed the AgroResources 2010 conference.

At the same time, he said, there is potential to increase production up to USD 60 billion. For that it is necessary to apply an "enhanced resource base, which is used in EU countries. The matter concerns advanced technologies, using quality equipment that can "somewhere 3 times increase crop and animal husbandry production".

An important aspect of boosting food production is land. According to Kozachenko, revaluation of land assets has been recently seen all over the world. He noted that in Ukraine after 10 years the cost of 1 ha could be worth of USD 15,000, i.e. the total value of farmlands will be about USD 0.5 trillion.

At the same time, Kozachenko said that "if the privatization of land begins tomorrow, the price of 1 ha will be about USD 300".

The UGA president also believes that Ukraine will not benefit from the introduction of subsidized system in agriculture. "The lack of subsidies today to a certain extent stimulates the development of the sector," the expert underscored.

Ukrainian Government completed accepting of applications for maize exports

On November 30, 2010, the Ministry of Economy of Ukraine declared about completion of acceptance of the applications for receiving of remaining quotas for exports of maize from the country.

It is expected that the Committee will declare the results of quotas distribution among market participants on December 2. At the same time, Ukrainian market participants waited for promulgation of the results at the day of ending of acceptance of the applications.

At the middle of November, the Government distributed quotas for maize exports at the level of 1.414 mln tonnes (from the initial offered volume of 2 mln tonnes), wheat – 500 thsd tonnes, barley – 200 thsd tonnes. The authorities distributed quotas for wheat and barley exports in full measure.

During the previous grain export quotas distribution, the majority of large-scale international companies, such as Cargill, Toepfer International, Noble Group, Louis Dreyfus, Soufflet Group, did not receive the quotas at all.

Russia to import grains from Ukraine and Kazakhstan

The Russian Federation is able to import grains from Ukraine and Kazakhstan, announced Pavel Skurihin, the President of the National Union of Grain Producers.

According to him, the current year grain production volumes will total 60 mln tonnes. According to various estimations, the last season carry-over stocks varied from 21 to 26 mln tonnes. And the stocks are very important resource for the country to date. That is why, taking into account the domestic consumption level of grain of 77-78 mln tonnes, P.Skurihin can see that the country will enter the following agricultural year (from July 1, 2011, to June 30, 2012) with the minimal or absolutely zero carry-over stocks. And according to the standards, the country should have grains stock for at least 2 months, not less than 10-12 mln tonnes. That is why, the certain grain volumes will have to be imported, stated the expert, and noted that the Russian Federation has the deficit of feed crops volumes – barley and maize.

Thus, according to him, it will be necessary to import not less than 5 mln tonnes of grains.

It is possible to import barley from Kazakhstan, and maize from Ukraine. Kazakhstan, the same like Russia, suffered from the summer droughts, but Kazakh grain balance is the surplus. Barley prices are rather high there. But Russia will fave the economy on the logistics, while purchasing barley in Kazakhstan, but not in far abroad countries, underlined P.Skurihin.

While answering the question about reasonability of feed grain selling from the Intervention Fund of the Russian Federation, the President of the National Union noted that now it is better to purchase grains of new crop abroad, in particular in Kazakhstan and Ukraine.

In the spring the world prices can face the increase. It is necessary to start to use own stocks, when other grain sources on the domestic and the nearest abroad markets will start to run low, stated P.Skurihin.

World market to feel Russian grains absence

According to Vins Peterson, the Vice President of the American Wheat Association, the world market has already felt grain deficit at the level of 15-20 mln tonnes, due to the absence of Russian, Ukrainian and Kazakh grain export volumes.

At the same time, V.Peterson stated that Russia can renew own positions on the world grains market rather fast.

According to him, the ban will cost the certain funds for Russia. The future year crop volumes decrease may become the payment, stated Edward Allen, the leading economist of the United States Department of Agriculture. Next year crop volumes will be less compared to the volumes, which could be without the grain export ban imposition, stated the economist.

On its turn, Oleg Aksyonov, the representative of the Ministry of Agriculture of the Russian Federation, stated that the grains export ban, imposed by Russia from August 15, 2010, was the right decision. It was accepted first of all, in order to provide the sufficient grains volumes to the country in the conditions of the hardest summer droughts.

According to Arkadiy Zlochevskiy, the President of Russian Grain Union, Russia is able to renew own lost position on the world market, if it is able to offer grains at the lower prices.

Russia: Government appeals to agrarians to sell grains on the market more active

According to Vladimir Putin, the Prime-Minister of the Russian Federation, the low rates of grain selling on the domestic market are explained by desire of the certain farming enterprises, where rather good crop volumes were harvested, to earn, to wait, while the market rises up, the prices increase, and then to sell grains on the expensive market. The Minister stated it on November 29.

V.Putin noted that the Government of the Russian Federation has the sufficient number of instruments in order to hold grain prices, and will not allow the violent increase of prices.

While talking about the possible grain selling from the Intervention Fund, the Prime-Minister noted that the Government examines the possibility to date.

V.Putin also announced that according to his request the Governments of neighboring countries reserved the necessary volumes of grains for the Russian Federation needs. If it is necessary, if if the authorities of Russia see that the prices face an increase, then Russia will realize the agreements and supply the additional grain volumes on the domestic market.

At the same time, he noted that there is rather acceptable grains prices level – from 6 to 7 thsd RUR/t on the market. Due to the fact, V.Putin appealed to market participants that they should not risk, and should not wait for anything, and should not spend the additional funds for grain storage and safety provision, they have to start to work.

On his turn, Victor Zubkov, the Vice Prime-Minister, announced that several enterprises (first of all, from the Siberian region) hold grains till the spring, and it is wrong.

To date, there are rather acceptable prices on the grain market. Due to the fact, the Minister underlined that it is necessary to reach the free grains move on the market.

Ukraine. 92% of winter crops in good and satisfactory condition

Winter grain crops as of November 25 were in good condition on an area of nearly 4.34 million hectares, or 53.4% of the total acreage. Winter crops were in satisfactory condition on an area of 3.13 million hectares, or 38.6% of the total acreage

As of November 25, winter crops sprouted on 8.116 million hectares out of the 8.198 million hectares sown with the crops.

Russian grain producers suggest exporting food grain, import feed grain

Russia should export food grain from the country's south and import feed grain instead, National Grain Producers Union President Pavel Skurikhin said on Tuesday.

Russia's southern regions hold about 10 million tons of surplus food grain, while drought-hit central regions suffered from feed grain shortages,Skurikhin said.

"To my mind, it would be reasonable to use (southern) grain ... maybe to sell it abroad, and to import the same amount of feed grain," Skurikhin told a news conference.

Russia banned grain exports from August 15, 2010 to June 30, 2011 in response to the country's worst drought in decades.

Russia's grain prices may grow 30 pct to 9,000 rbls per T in 2011 - grain union

Russian grain prices may increase 33% in the first quarter of 2011 to 9,000 rubles ($290) per ton from the current 6,000-7,000 rubles, the President of Russia's Union of Grain Producers Pavel Skurikhin said on Tuesday.

"Grain prices may certainly grow to the level of about 9,000 rubles per ton registered in the spring of 2008," Skurikhin said when asked about the grain price growth expected in the first quarter of 2011, when several regions would run out of their grain stocks.

Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov has previously said the current average price for grain amounts to 6,000-6,500 per ton, while Deputy Economic Development Minister Andrei Klepach has said average grain prices have hit 7,000 rubles per ton or more.

Russia has been confronted with the problem of imbalances in grain supplies among the regions this season. Southern regions have a surplus of food grain (about 10 million tons) while central and western regions that were hit by the drought in summer are experiencing a shortage of fodder grain required to maintain the livestock sector. Some regions are also experiencing a shortage of food rye for flour production.

"Except for the unequal grain distribution across the country and imbalances between different types of grain crops, I do not see any reasons for price hikes" he added.