Ukraine, one of the top global grain exporters, has supplied about 800,000 tonnes of grain to China so far this year, in line with a loan-for-grains deal signed in 2012, a Ukrainian deputy agriculture minister said on Tuesday. Yaroslav Krasnopolsky told a news conference that the volume included maize and barley for the domestic Chinese market and some wheat that was bought by a Chinese company for export to other countries.
He said that Ukraine would be able to export a total of 3 million tonnes of grain, mostly maize, to China this year, a forecast unchanged from previous estimates. Agriculture Minister Oleksiy Pavlenko told Reuters in June that Ukraine, which last year exported about 2 million tonnes of grains to China, planned to export at least the same volume in 2015.