News From Agro-Industrial Complex

Grain stocks in Ukraine on Nov. 1 totaled 22.4 million metric tons, 9% less than on Nov. 1 2008, the state statistics committee reported Tuesday. The stocks included 11.1 million tons of wheat, 5.3 million tons of barley, 3.6 million tons of corn and 800,000 tons of rye.

In own November report, the authoritative agency F.O. Licht (Germany) again increased the forecast of the world production of three main grains (wheat, maize and barley) in 2009/10 MY. At the same time, according to Keith Flury, the leading grain expert of the agency, in the current season grain production volumes will not become a little lower compared to the level of 2008/09 MY.

According to estimations of analysts of APK-Inform Agency, in 2009/10 MY, grain export volumes from Russia will decrease by 1.5 mln tonnes compared to 2008/09 MY, and reach the level of 21.3 mln tonnes. The situation the Russian and world markets of grains, and observed tendency of the reduction of grain export shipment during the first four months of the current MY confirm the forecast. In July-October period of 2009, supplies of Russian grains on the world market reduced by 9% compared to the same period of the previous year and totaled 8.2 mln tonnes as opposed to 9.03 mln tonnes in July-October of 2008.

According to estimations of APK-Inform experts, in 2009/10 MY, the export potential of grains and leguminous plants from Ukraine totals 16.8 mln tonnes, down 33% compared to the export volumes in 2008/09 MY. Despite the decrease of export volumes, the mentioned volume is rather large-scale, and exceeds the average annual indices of the previous seasons (except of 2008/09 MY).