Ukraine's grain exports have fallen to around 14.7 million metric tons so far in the 2023/24 July-June marketing season, agriculture ministry data showed on Wednesday.

The ministry said that by Dec. 16 last year, Ukraine had exported almost 20 million tons of grain.

Ukraine exported 1.6 million tons of grain so far in December, the ministry data showed.

The volume exported this season includes 6.3 million tons of wheat, 7.4 million tons of corn and 914,000 tons of barley.

In the previous season by Dec. 16, Ukraine had exported 7.4 million tons of wheat, 10.9 million tons of corn and 1.5 million tons of barley.

Ukraine has traditionally shipped most of its exports through its deep water Black Sea ports.

A senior Ukrainian government official said on Tuesday that the country's exports through the alternative Black Sea corridor could increase to 5 million metric tons in December from 3.8 million tons in November.

Ukraine launched the corridor hugging the western Black Sea coast near Romania and Bulgaria in August, after Moscow withdrew from the U.N. brokered Black Sea grain export deal in July and threatened to treat all vessels as potential military targets.

Deputy infrastructure minister Yuriy Vaskov told foreign diplomats that Ukraine exported 2 million tons of cargo in October and 280,000 tons in September via the alternative route.

Ukraine's government expects a harvest of 81.3 million tons of grain and oilseeds in 2023, with its 2023/24 exportable surplus totalling about 50 million tons. (Reporting by Pavel Polityuk, Editing by Louise Heavens)