Ukraine's grain exports to reach 36.8 mln tons this marketing year

Ukraine's grain exports will reach a record high of 36.8 million tons in the current marketing year, which runs between July 1, 2015 and June 30, 2016, the country's Agricultural Ministry forecasted on Tuesday.

Ukraine expects to ship abroad 16.9 million tons of corn, 15.9 million tons of wheat, 3.7 million tons of barley and some 300,000 tons of other cereals, according to a statement on the website of the Ukrainian Agricultural Ministry.

Ukraine's grain exports will rise due to the projected good harvest, lower domestic consumption and large carry-over stocks, Ukrainian Agricultural Minister Olexiy Pavlenko said, adding that Ukraine has already supplied overseas about 4 million tons of cereals since July 1.

"We hope that in the second half of 2015, we will earn about 4 billion U.S. dollars from grain exports," Pavlenko said.

In the 2014-2015 marketing year, Ukraine's shipments of grain overseas rose 7.4 percent year-on-year to 34.8 million tons.

The Agricultural Ministry hopes that the country will harvest 60.5 million tons of grain in 2015 compared with a record yield of 63.8 million tons in 2014. Endi