Ukraine boosts farm produce exports to EU and Africa in H1
In the first half of 2023, the export of farm produce increased by 5% to USD 12.451 billion.
This follows from a statement by the Institute of Agrarian Economics National Scientific Center with reference to the information of the State Customs Service, the Ukrainian News agency reports.
At the same time, the share of the export of farm produce in the total export of Ukraine according to the results of the first half of 2024, is 64%.
According to the report, the main sales markets for domestic farm produce are three regions - the countries of the European Union, Asia, and Africa; in the first half of 2024, their combined share amounted to almost 94% of the value of Ukrainian exports of farm produce.
At the same time, there is an increase in supplies to the European Union, which is the main sales market for the third year in a row, as well as to Africa, while food exports to Asia are decreasing.
"Maintaining the position of the main importer of domestic farm produce since the beginning of the russian federation's full-scale aggression on the territory of our country, EU member states purchased more than 50% of Ukrainian food for USD 6,285 million in the first half of 2024, 4% more than the figure for the corresponding period last year. In the first half of the year, Asian countries bought Ukrainian food worth USD 3,909 million, which is 9% less than in the corresponding period of 2023. During this period, the share of Asia amounted to more than 31% of the total export of farm produce," said the deputy director of the institute, Mykola Puhachov.
At the same time, the volume of exports to African countries amounted to USD 1,475 million, up 1.7 times year over year.
The share of this region was equal to 12% of the total export of farm produce from Ukraine.
According to Puhachov, in the first half of the year, the rating of countries - importers of domestic farm produce is led by a significant margin by Spain, which sold agricultural raw materials and finished products in the amount of USD 1,518 million.
"This provided it with a share of 12% in the geographical structure of our exports. The second position, as in the results of last year, is held by China, having made purchases in the amount of USD 946 million, the share of which was approximately 8%. Turkiye, which, by the volume of Ukrainian purchases of food, is traditionally in the top 3, securing the usual third place by importing farm produce worth USD 926 million, i.e., more than 7% of the total value. Ukrainian exporters also received significant revenue from Egypt (USD 910 million), the Netherlands (USD 831 million), Poland (USD 733 million), Italy (USD 632 million), Romania (USD 582 million), Germany (USD 471 million), and India (USD 351 million)," said Puhachov.
He noted that the determining groups of products in the commodity structure of agricultural exports of Ukraine are, as before, grain crops (USD 5,264 million), oils and fats (USD 3,079 million), oil crops (USD 1,061 million), food residues and waste industry (USD 821 million), meat and offal (USD 505 million).
Together, they provided 86% of the revenue from the sale of domestic farm produce to world markets.
At the same time, in the current year, in monetary terms, the export of meat products, oil, residues, and waste is increasing; however, the revenue from oil sales has decreased, and the level of income from grain supplies has practically not changed.
As the Ukrainian News agency earlier reported, in 2023, Ukraine reduced its export of farm produce to the European Union by 3.8%, or by USD 0.5 billion month over month, to USD 12.6 billion.