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.
The government of Ukraine is once again holding back the payment of huge sums of value-added tax refunds, for long periods of time, owed to grain exporters and other private companies. Ukraine is reported by many private companies to have the worst track record of any country in the world regarding vat tax refund payments, according to the U.S.-Ukraine Business Council (USUBC).
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.
It is not a secret that using of innovative process solutions in the fat-and-oil industry provides the undisputed competitive advantage. To date, in the terms of severe competitive struggle on both the domestic and foreign markets, only those companies, which promptly introduce advanced technical and technological concepts, have the best qualitative parameters of own products and the least prime cost of own commodities.
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.
The growth of processing capacities, and the high demand of importers caused the essential increase of production volumes of sunflower oil in the new season.
To date, our agency estimates the potential of sunflower oil production in 2009/10 MY at the level of 2.6 mln tonnes as opposed to 2.7 mln tonnes in 2008/09 MY.
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).
The Agrarian Fund of Ukraine stocks 2.4 mln tonnes of grains, including the volumes given to agrarians as collateral for receiving of budget lend, declared Yuri Lusan, the First Deputy Minister of Agrarian Policy of Ukraine, on November 6. Such grain volumes will completely cover realization of interventions during the whole marketing year.
In the current year, sunflower harvest in Ukraine will total 6.5-6.6 mln tonnes, as opposed to nearly 6 mln tonnes of the previous forecast, declared Yuri Lusan, the First Deputy Minister of Agrarian Policy of Ukraine, on November 6.
From the beginning of the current marketing year (MY, July 2009 – June 2010), and as of November 6, Ukraine exported 9.5 mln tonnes of grains, declared Yuri Lusan, the First Deputy Minister of Agrarian Policy of Ukraine. The rates of grain exports became higher compared to the previous year.