Ukrainian Black Sea exports exceed the best performance of the grain corridor for the second month

For the second month in a row, Ukrainian agricultural exports through the Black Sea ports exceeded the best performance of the grain corridor, and total exports reached pre-war levels.

In January, Black Sea exports decreased by 10% compared to December, from 4.8 to 4.29 mln tons, but both figures exceed the record monthly export volume of 4.1 mln tons reached in October 2022.

In January, the port of Chornomorsk shipped 1.9 mln tons of products, Odesa – 1.3 mln tons, Pivdennyi – 1.02 mln tons. Deliveries through the Danube ports decreased by 11% to 1.13 million tons in January, including 773.237 thousand tons through Izmail and 313.34 thousand tons through Reni.

Currently, the share of shipments via river ports in total exports is 27%, 44% via deepwater ports, and 16% by rail. The volume of railway exports of agricultural products in January decreased by 18% to 685.687 thousand tons.

Total exports of agricultural products in January reached 6.36 million tons, which exceeds the figures for January 2019 and 2020, when exports amounted to 6 million tons.

The humanitarian corridor created by the Ukrainian Navy allowed Ukraine to resume exports, allowing it to export goods from deepwater ports without any additional checks, as was the case during the grain corridor created under the auspices of the UN and Turkey.

The main positions of Ukrainian exports in 2023 were grains and oilseeds, vegetable oils and fats, meat and offal, and the largest buyers were Romania, China and Turkey, according to the National Research Center “Institute of Agrarian Economics”.

For the first time, Romania topped the ranking of major importers of Ukrainian agricultural products, purchasing $2.87 billion worth of goods last year, which accounted for 13% of Ukraine’s agricultural exports.

The second position was taken by China, which increased its purchases by 18% from $1.8 to $2.2 billion compared to 2022, which accounted for 10% of domestic agricultural exports.

Turkey retained the third position in the ranking with the share of 9% or $1.99 bln.

Poland lost its status as the largest buyer of Ukrainian agricultural products after the introduction of restrictions on imports of agricultural products from Ukraine and reduced its purchases by 30% to $1.79 billion.

The top 10 largest buyers of Ukrainian agricultural products also included:

• Spain ($1.76 billion),
• The Netherlands ($1.27 billion),
• Egypt ($1.07 billion),
• Italy ($1.04 billion),
• Germany ($862 million),
• Hungary ($471 million).

In 2023, these 10 countries provided 69% of foreign exchange earnings to Ukrainian agricultural exporters.

Tags: Ukraine, export, Black Sea grain corridor