Exports of farm produce down 10.2% to 7.2 million tons in March

In March, the export of agricultural products decreased by 10.2% compared to February to 7.2 million tons.

This follows from a statement by the Ukrainian Agribusiness Club association, the Ukrainian News agency reports.

According to the report, the decrease in export volumes in March was caused by a number of factors:

• active shelling of the south of Ukraine by Russian troops, which leads to interruptions in the work of seaports and negatively affects the pace of shipments;
• continued blocking of exports by Polish protesters;
• good export volumes in previous months, which reduce transitional balances;
• very low prices on the world market for all types of grain and oil crops, which forces farmers to expect a more favorable price.

In March, the export of grain crops decreased by 11% month over month to 5.2 million tons (corn - 53%, wheat - 40%, barley - 7%); the export of oil crops decreased by 26% to 445,300 tons (soybean – 51%, rape – 35% and sunflower seeds – 12%); the export of vegetable oils increased by 1% to 651,100 tons (sunflower oil - 93%, soybean oil - 5% and rapeseed oil - 1%); the export of cake after oil extraction decreased by 13% to 480,500 tons (sunflower - 86%, soybean - 14%); and the export of other types of agricultural products increased by 6% to 405,000 tons.

As the Ukrainian News agency earlier reported, in February, the export of agricultural products increased by 3.4% compared to January to 8 million tons.

In 2023, Ukrainian farmers exported products worth almost USD 22 billion.