KYIV- Ukrainian corn exports fell by 25% in the first half of the 2020/21 October-September season to 15.9 million tonnes, with China the leading export market, APK-Inform consultancy said on Monday, citing customs data.

Ukraine exported 6 million tonnes of corn to China between October 2020 and March 2021, 5.0 million tonnes to the European Union, 1.7 million tonnes to Egypt and 3.2 million tonnes to other destinations.

Ukraine harvested around 30 million tonnes of corn in 2020 and the economy ministry said the export would not exceed 24 million tonnes in 2020/21.

APK-Inform said the 2020/21 balance should allow the export of 23.2 million tonnes of corn, with traders having so far shipped 68% of that potential volume.

The consultancy earlier on Monday said corn export prices had reversed the downtrend and rose by up to $5 a tonne to $261-$270 FOB over the past week.

(Reporting by Pavel Polityuk; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne) ((pavel.polityuk@tr.com; +380 44 2449150; Reuters Messaging: pavel.polityuk.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))