KYIV: Ukrainian wheat export prices have risen $5 a tonne over the past week thanks to global upward trend, the APK-Inform agriculture consultancy said on Monday.

Bid prices for high-quality soft milling wheat increased to $268-$275 a tonne FOB Black Sea port, APK-Inform said. Feed wheat rose by $4 a tonne to $261-$269 FOB Black Sea.

Ukraine sold about 57 million tonnes of grain to foreign buyers in the 2019/20 season. The government has said exports could decline to 45.7 million tonnes in 2020/21 due to a weaker harvest.

APK-Inform also said corn bid export prices rose by up to $11 over the past week to $281-$291 FOB, while bid prices for Ukrainian-origin barley rose by $6 to $244-$253 per tonne FOB Black Sea.

The consultancy earlier on Monday said it had kept its forecast for Ukraine’s 2021 grain harvest unchanged at 73.6 million tonnes. The harvest totalled 64.9 million tonnes in 2020.

Whereas, weather conditions in the first 10 days of May were mainly favourable for the development of both winter and spring grain crops, most of which are in good condition, state weather forecasters said on Monday.

“The vegetation of winter and early spring crops was active; there was no significant lag behind the long-term average indicators,” state-run weather forecasting centre said in a report.

Ukraine, a global major grain grower and exporter, has said it plans to harvest a record harvest this year at no less than 75 million tonnes versus 65 million in 2020.

The agriculture ministry said on Friday farms had almost completed 2021 early spring grain sowing, seeding more than 1.9 million hectares of various crops as of May 13.

The ministry said the overall grain area was likely to total 15.5 million hectares this year, including 7.6 million of spring grains.

The spring sowing area is expected to include 1.388 million hectares of barley, 176,600 hectares of wheat, 5.327 million hectares of corn, 194,050 hectares of oats and 235,400 hectares of peas.