Ukraine may bring grain export to 4.5 mln tonnes a month - association

MOSCOW. July 24 (Interfax) - Ukraine may raise its export of grain and oilseeds from today's two million tonnes a month to three million tonnes a month in 2024, and to 4.5 million tonnes in the near future, but logistics subsidies are needed for that, president of the Ukrainian Grain Association Nikolai Gorbachev said.

"Already today, Ukraine can export some two million tonnes of grain and oilseeds a month via Danube ports. I hope that we'll ship a record-large amount next month and will see a figure of three million tonnes. We can also export grain through Europe's infrastructure by rail and by road. This allows Ukraine to export about 3.5 million tonnes a month. And the export will improve to 4.5 million tonnes per month in the near future," Ukrainian media quoted Gorbachev as saying in remarks to the Voice of America media outlet, designated as a foreign agent in Russia.

Before the crisis, Ukraine shipped seven million tonnes of grain a month via its Black Sea ports, and, naturally, it is yet "to achieve the necessary parameters," he said.

It is extremely important to Ukraine to secure a reduction of logistics costs, he said.

"If we don't make it cheaper for our farmers, who work without any subsidies, they can reduce the area under crops next season. In this case, there won't be any problem: Ukraine will have grain, but the world will be left without Ukrainian grain," Gorbachev said.

Food inflation will be the price for the impossibility to export Ukrainian grain, while developing countries will not have sufficient capabilities to buy "precious items such as corn and wheat", he said.