"Whether this is good or bad, but we see that the preliminary figure is not even 36 million tonnes, it's 37 million tonnes. This is a reference figure for making various projections," the minister said.
Pavlenko also noted that last year Ukrainian agricultural exports accounted for 38% of foreign exchange earnings. The surplus of foreign trade in farm produce was estimated at $11.1 billion.
As UNIAN reported earlier, Ukraine harvested 59.96 million tonnes of grain and leguminous crops in 2015, which was 6.1% down on 2014, according to the State Statistics Service (excluding the temporarily occupied territories of Crimea and the Anti-Terrorist Operation zone).
According to expert projections, Ukraine may export up to 37.7 million tonnes of grain in the 2015-2016 MY. During the last season, grain exports totaled 34.8 million tonnes.
Ukraine exported $14.6 billion worth of farm produce in 2015, exceeding imports by $11.1 billion, which was a record high level since the country's independence. Last year, Asian countries accounted for 45% of Ukrainian food exports. The share of exports to Europe was 28.2%, to Africa 13.6% and to the CIS countries 10%. Grain accounted for 16% of all farm produce exports, fats and oil for 9% and oilseeds for 4%.
