Ukraine's maize exports are unlikely to exceed 12.0-12.5 million tonnes in the 2012/13 season, compared to the previous year's 15 million tonnes, due to a smaller harvest and sluggish demand, traders said on Thursday. The former Soviet republic cut maize production to 20.9 million tonnes in 2012 from 22.8 million tonnes a year earlier due to record hot weather last summer.
"I see exports of no more than 12 million tonnes of maize this season. There is not a lot of maize on the market and its quality is not that high," a large foreign trader said on the sidelines at an international grain conference in Kiev. Agriculture Minister Mykola Prysyazhnyuk has repeatedly said that up to 14 million tonnes of maize could be exported from Ukraine in the 2012/13 season.
Ukraine, the world's fourth-biggest maize exporter in 2011/12, sold abroad about 11 million tonnes of the commodity between July 2012 and April 2013, according to the Agriculture Ministry data. Traders, who use a different marketing season for maize - from September to August - say the exports totalled about 10 million tonnes and 2.0 million more tonnes of maize could be sold abroad in the remaining five months of this season. The trader added that producers, who traded maize at record high prices earlier this season, are waiting for a future rise in prices. Minister Prysyazhnyuk said last week that Ukrainian grain exports were likely to fall in April due to lower demand.