Ukraine food maritime exports seen falling sharply in January
Adds detail, background
By Pavel Polityuk
KYIV, Jan 31 (Reuters) –Ukraine’s agricultural maritime exports are expected to fall sharply toaround 3.8 million metric tons in January from around 6.1 million tons in December, brokers said on Wednesday.
Spike Brokers, which tracks and publishes export statistics, said 2.5 million tons of food had been exported from Ukrainian seaports as of Jan. 28 and around 874,000 tons could be shipped abroad in the coming days.
An additional500,000 tons of agricultural goods could be exported from Ukrainian Danube ports this month, brokers said on the Telegram messaging app.
Spike Brokers gave no explanation for the decrease while Ukrainian agriculture minister Mykola Solsky said this month that key Ukrainian food exports mightdecrease this month because of tensions in the Red Sea.
Attacks by Iran-allied Houthi militia in Yemen on vessels in the region since November have slowed trade between Asia and Europe and alarmed major powers.
Another Ukrainian official said Ukrainian maritime grain exportsare expected to fall by around 20% in January from the previous month due to the crisis in the Red Sea and the New Year holidays.
Passage through the Red Sea is very important for Ukraine, as almost a third of its exports via the alternative Black Sea corridor are sent to China.
Ukraine, one of the major global producers and exporters of food products, harvested about 80 million metric tons of grain and oilseeds in 2023 and its combined grain and oilseed exportable surplus is about 50 million tons in the 2023/24 July-June season, the government said.
The farm ministry data showed grain exports had reached 22.1 million tons as of January 22, 2024 versus 25.7 million at the same stage last year, the data showed.
Food and metal products traditionally dominated Ukrainian exports before the Russian invasion in February 2022, but the share of metals has now fallen significantly due to Russia’s destruction of large factories in southern Ukraine.
Reporting by Pavel Polityuk, Editing by Louise Heavens and Kim Coghill
