Ukraine, which plans to harvest a record 20-22 million tonnes of maize this year, exported around 1.0 million tonnes of the commodity in the first half of November that is almost the same volume as in all of October, grain lobby said on Thursday. Ukrainian Agrarian Confederation (UAC) said in a report a jump in exports combined with a fall in domestic maize prices.
"The prices are continuing to fall. In central Ukraine maize prices have reduced by $18-$19 per tonne to $170-$175 per tonne ex-farm as of November 16," the grain lobby said. Ukraine harvested 18.5 million tonnes of maize bunker weight as of November 14 and UAC noted that farms could harvest additional 2.7 million tonnes of the commodity from the remaining planted area of about 450,000 hectares.
A record high maize crop has forced producers to find new markets and Ukraine has already sold around 1.0 million tonnes of its maize to Japan and could launch new shipments to other Asian countries. Japan, the world's biggest corn importer, usually imports about 12 million tonnes a year for animal feed, most of which is from the United States, the world's biggest corn exporter.