USDA raises Ukraine's corn export forecast to 17.5 mln tonnes, wheat to 12.5 mln tonnes in 2022/2023 MY - report

MOSCOW. Dec 12 (Interfax) - The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has raised its forecast for corn exports from Ukraine in the 2022/2023 marketing year (July 2022-June 2023) by 2 million tonnes to 17.5 million tonnes and lowered its forecast for Ukraine's corn harvest by 4.5 million tonnes to 27 million tonnes compared to its November report, Ukrainian media said, citing the U.S. agency.

The December report available on the USDA website says that corn production in Ukraine has dropped dramatically both due to a reduction of farmland under it and its yield, as the ongoing hostilities and unusually heavy precipitation in the fall delayed the harvesting campaign in the key corn producing areas, i.e. the Poltava, Sumy, and Cherkassy regions.

The USDA lowered its estimate of Ukraine's domestic corn consumption in the 2022/2023 marketing year by 3 million tonnes to 6.5 million tonnes.

It raised its outlook of Ukraine's food-grade wheat exports by 1.5 million tonnes to 12.5 million tonnes, maintained its harvest forecast at 20.5 million tonnes, and lowered its estimate of wheat's domestic consumption by 1 million tonnes to 4.5 million tonnes.

At the same time, USDA raised its forecast for Ukraine's forage grain exports by 2 million tonnes to 19.93 million tonnes and lowered that of its production by 4 million tonnes to 34.96 million tonnes.

As reported with reference to the Ukrainian Agrarian Policy and Food Ministry, Ukraine has exported 18.08 million tonnes of grains since the start of the 2022/2023 marketing year, which is 29.8% less than it exported from July 1 to December 2, 2021 (25.77 million tonnes).

In particular, Ukraine has exported 9.66 million tonnes of corn (up by 60% year-on-year), 6.87 million tonnes of wheat (down by nearly 53%), 1.48 million tonnes of barley (down by over 70%), 12,000 tonnes of rye (down by over 85%), and 53,200 tonnes of flour (up by 2.1%).