Analyst raises Ukraine's wheat export forecast
2014-10-01 12:34:38
Agriculture consultancy UkrAgroConsult increased its forecast for Ukraine's 2014/15 wheat exports to 10.0 million tonnes from a previous outlook of 9.5 million. UkrAgroConsult said that Ukraine had exported 4.4 million tonnes of wheat in the first three months of this season which runs from July to June, or around 40 percent of the volume of wheat available for exports in 2014/15.
"Devaluation of the Ukrainian currency hryvnia was the major driver for high exports, which raised the competitiveness of Ukrainian wheat in the world market," the consultancy said in a statement on Tuesday. Ukraine's currency has lost about 40 percent of its value so far this year due to an economic turmoil caused by military conflict in eastern regions.
The impact of Russia's annexation of the Crimean peninsula earlier this year is expected to be slim, given the region produced about 760,000 tonnes of grain, including 351,000 tonnes of wheat in 2013, accounting for about 1.2 percent of Ukraine's total grain harvest.