Ukraine, which hopes to increase its grain crop to 38 million tonnes in 2007, will place no limits on grain exports in the 2007/08 season (July-June), Deputy Prime Minister Viktor Slauta said on Friday. "There will be no export limits next season," Slauta told reporters after meeting regional agriculture officials.
In October-December 2006, Ukraine introduced export quotas totalling 2.7 million tonnes to prevent a sharp rise in local bread prices after a 10 percent fall in the grain crop.
The government later issued quotas covering an additional 864,000 tonnes, but in February abolished 2006/07 export restrictions on feed grains while keeping place limits on food grain shipments. Last month, a senior agriculture official told Reuters the government was considering the introduction of further quotas in 2007/08 if no agreement on volumes could be reached with traders.
The official said Ukraine could export 11-12 million tonnes of grain in 2007/08 compared with 9.5 million forecast for the current season. In line with official data, Ukraine exported about 6.4 million tonnes of grain so far in 2006/07.
Ukraine's UkrAgroConsult agriculture consultancy said seaport grain exports fell by 31 percent to 553,750 tonnes in March 2007 compared with 803,350 in March 2006.
The consultancy said the country had exported 95,300 tonnes of wheat this month compared with 253,000 in March 2006. Barley exports rose to 328,950 tonnes from 248,300 last year.
Last week, grain traders asked the government to abolish export restrictions on wheat from April 1, saying the country had 4.5 million tonnes of wheat in stocks, enough to cover local needs and exports. According to official data, Ukraine exported 2.39 million tonnes of wheat so far this season compared with 4.687 million in the same period in 2005/06.