KYIV: Ukraine is now not planning to review the current wheat export quota for the 2020/21 July-June season, senior economy ministry officials told traders and producers on Monday. Grain traders and the government have agreed the volume of wheat available for export this season must not exceed 17.5 million tonnes in a bid to ensure local needs and prevent export restrictions.

The economy ministry said on Monday Ukraine had used 57.4% of the 2020/21 wheat export quota, shipping abroad 10 million tonnes of the commodity in the July-June season. "Taking into account the smaller projected volume of exports... the current export rates are quite high," the ministry said in a note.

But it added that the pace of wheat exports could gradually decrease in future and the ministry could go back to the quota issue in January. Ukraine exported 3.710 million tonnes of wheat in September, 3.536 million tonnes in August and 1.239 million tonnes in July, the ministry said. Exports have so far reached 1.559 million tonnes in October.

Ukraine harvested 25 million tonnes of wheat in 2020 compared with 28.3 million tonnes in 2019. Ukraine exported 20.5 million tonnes of wheat in the 2019/20 season.