KYIV: Ukraine's grain ending stocks for the 2020/21 July-June season will be up 17% year on year owing to a sharp increase in corn reserves, analysts at APK-Inform consultancy said on Thursday.

Corn stocks are likely to rise 51% to 2.4 million tonnes, with high reserves putting pressure on domestic grain prices in the medium term, APK-Inform said in a report.

The grain stocks will also include 1.5 million tonnes of wheat and 1 million tonnes of barley.

The consultancy attributed the envisaged increase in corn stocks to a decrease in importer interest in Ukrainian corn because of high prices and lower sales of corn by agricultural producers.

Export prices for Ukrainian corn are up to 5% higher than the cost of top-quality soft milling wheat, APK-Inform said.

Ukraine harvested 30 million tonnes of corn in 2020 and the government does not expect exports to exceed 24 million tonnes in the 2020/21 season.