KYIV (Reuters) – Ukraine’s agricultural maritime exports fell to around 6.11 million metric tons in March from around 6.38 million tons in February, agriculture ministry data showed on Tuesday.
The ministry gave no explanation for the decrease. Ukraine has traditionally exported around 95% of its agricultural cargo via its deep water Black Sea ports.
However, the UCAB Ukrainian farm business association in a statement on Monday linked the expected decline to Russian forces shelling southern Ukraine, which interrupted operations at seaports, and to Polish protesters blocking land exports.
The ministry data also showed that Ukraine’s overall food exports decreased to 6.99 million tons in March from 7.34 million tons in February.
Corn dominated exports in March and in February.
Ukrainian grain traders union UGA said in a statement that 5.02 million tons of food cargo were delivered from the Odesa ports hub while 1.07 million tons left Ukraine from the Danube river ports in March.
In March 2023, Ukraine exported 3.75 million tons of agricultural cargo from Odesa and 1.99 million tons from Danube ports.
UGA said the volume of farm goods exported by railways decreased to 652,000 tons in March 2024 from 1.075 million tons in March 2023. Exports by trucks also fell to 137,000 tons from 483,000 tons.
The farm ministry data showed that food exports by lorries were at 153,673 tons in February. Sunflower oil accounted for the bulk of shipments in March and February.
Food and metal products traditionally dominated Ukrainian exports before the Russian invasion in February 2022.
Economy Minister Yulia Svyrydenko wrote on X on Monday that Ukraine’s overall exports by sea hit 11.8 million tons in March. She gave no comparison.
(Reporting by Pavel Polityuk; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)
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