Ukraine & Russia: Ukraine increases barley exports in March, Russia in July-February 2017/18

Barley exports from Ukraine increased substantially in March compared to February 2018. They totaled 110.5 thousand tonnes - up 66% from February (66.7 thousand tonnes) but down 47% from March 2017 (208.4 thousand tonnes), UkrAgroConsult reported on May 2.

Ukrainian exporters supplied more than 4 mln tonnes of barley to foreign markets in the first nine months of MY 2017/18 (July-March), i.e. 15% less than at the same time last season.

As before, this season’s main end markets for Ukrainian barley include Saudi Arabia, China, the European Union, and Libya. The share of Turkey continues to grow. During the reporting period, Ukraine supplied 25% more barley to this market than during the whole of last season.

Due to a substantial rise in Ukrainian barley shipments to China (up 163% on the year), less was exported to end markets such as Libya, Iran, Israel, Tunisia etc. In addition, this season Ukraine shipped no barley to the UAE, Oman, Egypt, Bangladesh and some other countries.

Noteworthy, in July-February 2017/18 Russia increased barley shipments by 36% as compared to the whole 2016/17 season. The share of Saudi Arabia increased to 37% of its exports. Iran imported 1.1 mln tonnes of Russian barley, or more than twice as much as during the whole last season, and became the second-largest importer of Russian barley.

Russia’s barley exports to Turkey saw a significant increase too, UkrAgroConsult analysts said. Russian shipments grew to 384.6 thousand tonnes during July-February 2017/18. This level was the largest since MY 2014/15.

Besides, Kuwait resumed barley purchases from Russia, importing 126 thousand tonnes in July-February 2017/18.

02 May, 2018