With uncertain harvest prospects, Ukrainian officials have suggested a voluntary export cap
KIEV, Ukraine (Reuters) — Ukraine’s agriculture ministry has asked traders to cap milling wheat exports at 200,000 tonnes per month in January and February, despite a large volume of wheat in stocks.
Traders said the suggested limits are not obligatory.
February exports of wheat from Ukraine were 188,000 to 446,000 tonnes in the previous three years, with milling wheat comprising half the total.
“They (the ministry) asked us to export 200,000 tonnes of milling wheat in January and in February and then to meet again to consider a future strategy,” a foreign trader said after a meeting of top grain exporters and the ministry’s officials.
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Traders said the ministry wanted to keep as much wheat in stock as possible because it was uncertain how much the next harvest, in July, would yield.
Agriculture minister Oleksiy Pavlenko said Ukraine had no plan to restrict grain exports and would instead meet with traders to plan the year ahead as normal, after Russia introduced curbs to stabilize surging prices.
He said his ministry and traders would prepare a memorandum for the season, which runs from July 2014 to June 2015, allowing the government to impose restrictions if exports exceeded specified volumes.
Traders said this memorandum, which is produced every year, was likely to be signed in the near future.
Ukraine has exported 8.5 million tonnes of all types of wheat this season, out of a total export surplus that traders estimate at 10 million tonnes.
