Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine and the representatives of professional associations in the grain market, in particular economic entities - exporters of grain signed a Memorandum of Understanding in 2018/19 MY.

The signing of the Memorandum at the beginning of the new season is already well-established practice; it allows to stabilize the grain market in the country, ensure predictability, the rhythm of exports and enables to proportionally load the infrastructure, in particular, the railway.

This year, due to the increased demand for food grain in the foreign markets, caused by a series of crop failures and difficult weather conditions in the supplier countries, the Memorandum also aims to prevent imbalances in the domestic market of food wheat. Therefore, unlike the previous years, the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine and the market participants agreed to define the acceptable export balances before the end of the harvest period in order to instruct the market participants - at the stage of contracting export batch. In addition, this year for the first time among the signatories of the Memorandum is the All-Ukrainian Association of Bakers and the Council of the Association of Bakery Enterprises "Ukrkhlibprom".

At the moment, the Memorandum fixes the volume of forecasted wheat export of food grade at the level of 8 million tons which also includes flour export in terms of grain and 8 million tons of forage. Both indicators are not final and can be adjusted - both in the direction of increase and vice versa following the end of harvesting period and after clarifying the data on the volumes of the harvested grain and its quality. In terms of volumes of export of coarse grains, clarifications will be made considering the position of representatives of the livestock sector - this practice is also applied for the first time.

The Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine expects to carry out such a review no later than September 2018.

"Ukraine is a stable and reliable partner in the supply of grain to foreign markets. Traditionally, by producing more than consuming, we can guarantee both domestic food security and provide the entire world with food. The signing of the Memorandum is another confirmation of this, as well as an example of how the Government and participants in the grain market can find a compromise in the balance of consumption and exports of Ukrainian grain, "said the First Deputy Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine - Maksym Martynyuk.

For their part, representatives of the grain market thanked the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine for a constructive dialogue, cooperation and compromise solutions.

"I would like to stress that there has never been such an open and compromise cooperation ever in the history of signing the Memorandum. Therefore, I am sure that in the future Ukraine does not have to worry and our foreign partners can always count on us," the President of the Ukrainian Grain Association - Mykola Gorbachov commented on the signing of the Memorandum.

For reference:

The Memorandum of Understanding between the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine and market participants has been concluded since 2011.

The document provides for the interaction of grain market participants, exchange of information, monitoring of the grain market.

The Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine maintains the forecast of the grain yield in Ukraine at the level of 60 million tons +. The wheat harvest is expected at 24 million tons, of which 13 million tons are of food grade. The domestic market demand for food wheat is 4,5 million tons.

In the previous marketing season, Ukraine exported 10 million tons of food grade wheat.

Press office 

of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine