Ukrainian Economy Ministry forecasts 2023 grain harvest at 49.5 mln tonnes

MOSCOW. Feb 1 (Interfax) - The Ukrainian Economy Ministry projects this year's grain harvest in Ukraine at around 49.5 million tonnes, which is higher than the National Bank of Ukraine's (NBU) forecast of 46 million tonnes, First Deputy Economy Minister Denis Kudin said.

"Ukraine definitely has enough food supplies. Rather, the problem is with the rest of the world: we have become a key player on the world stage. Therefore, whereas the logistics of agricultural products from Ukraine is important to us because it means an inflow of hard currency proceeds, it is important to the world because it is its food security," Kudin said in an interview with Ukrainian journalists on the sidelines of the Rapid Recovery of Ukraine business forum in Luxembourg.

In the current situation, the Economy Ministry sees no need to resort to any bans or quotas on agricultural exports but, nonetheless, will keep licensing certain types of such products, he said.

"Through licensing, we receive information about the volume of exports, and if we see that the books do not balance, that there is a risk that our internal consumption needs will not be covered, we reserve the right to limit exports," Kudin said.

The Economy Ministry's balance of payments forecast for 2023 is also far more positive than the NBU's, he said.

Data from the Ukrainian Agrarian Policy and Food Ministry indicates that Ukrainian farmers had harvested 52.6 million tonnes of grain and legumes by January 27, 2023. Over the week, the average harvested area increased by 1 percentage point to 96% of the earlier planned area. Corn has yet to be gathered from 10% of the area (+ 3 percentage points over the week). A total of 25.2 million tonnes of corn had been harvested by January 27.