KYIV- Ukraine's agriculture ministry does not expect to impose grain export restrictions in the next two months of the 2021/2022 season that began on July 1, a senior ministry official said on Monday.
The official said volumes of Ukrainian grain exports would be determined by the ministry, traders and domestic consumers by Aug. 30, the official added.
Farm minister Roman Leshchenko later on Monday said the ministry and farm associations had signed a traditional annual grain memorandum in bid to form a "predictable export regime".
Traders said the document did not contain any numbers or volumes.
Leshchenko said the signing of such memorandums in previous years allowed avoiding export curbs, but the government in 2020/21 introduced limits on wheat, corn and buckwheat exports, yielding to pressure from domestic meat producers.
"Our country is one of the guarantors of world food security, but domestic food security for Ukrainian farmers and our Ministry, no doubt, is above all," Leshchenko said.
The ministry imposed an export limit of 17.5 million tonnes of wheat for 2020/2021 and a limit of 24 million tonnes of corn.
Ukraine, which has already started its 2021 grain harvest, expects an all-time high crop of around 76 million tonnes and traders see no reason to impose any limits amid good harvests in key producing regions.
However, analyst APK-Inform said on Monday that adverse weather conditions in Ukraine's southern, central and eastern grain producing regions could lead to significant losses in its barley and wheat harvests.
Traders said the uncertainty over the wheat harvest was the main reason for the ministry's refusal to either establish a specific volume of permitted exports, or even abandon restrictions for the whole entire season.
The ministry has not yet announced its grain export forecast for the new season.
The ministry said experts predicted the sale of 56 million tonnes of grain in 2021/22, which could include 20.7 million tonnes of wheat, 30.7 million tonnes of corn and 4.1 million tonnes of barley.
Ukraine exported 44.6 million tonnes of grain from its 2020 crop of 65 million tonnes.
(Reporting by Pavel Polityuk; Editing by Edmund Blair and David Evans) ((pavel.polityuk@tr.com; +380 44 2449150; Reuters Messaging: pavel.polityuk.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))
