Ukraine cuts agri-exports to EU in 2020

The Ukrainian Agribusiness Club Association (UCAB) says Ukraine in 2020 reduced exports of agricultural products to the European Union countries by 10.8%, to EUR 6.53 billion.

Ukraine last year ranked fourth in terms of major suppliers of agricultural products to the EU with a 5% share, following China (5%), the U.S. (8%) and Brazil (9%), the UCAB's press service wrote on Facebook on January 26.

Last year, Ukraine fully used quotas for duty-free exports of agricultural products to the EU for 11 commodity groups: honey; sugar; cereals and flour; processed starch; processed tomatoes; grape and apple juices; eggs; corn; poultry; processed cereal products; and starch.

The situation with the use of quotas for supplies of eggs, wheat, and butter to the EU has changed against 2019.

"In 2020, supply quotas for eggs were fully used, while a year earlier, they had been used only by 80%. The situation with wheat is the opposite: the quota in 2020 was filled only by 78%, although it had been fully used a year ago. The situation with butter is more critical: in 2020, a mere 6% of the allocated quota was used, whereas it was fully used in the previous year," the report said.

According to UCAB, Ukrainian butter exports in 2020 were down by 38% from 2019, while supplies to the EU countries were scanty.

Read alsoEconomy Ministry, traders cap corn exports in MY 2020/21"The main reason is that the Ukrainian butter cannot compete in price with the European one, even if there are quotas, due to growing production costs. Moreover, Ukraine's imports of European butter in 2020 exceeded exports by 1,000 times," UCAB analyst Svitlana Lytvyn said.

Background

In January 2021, Minister for Development of Economy, Trade and Agriculture Ihor Petrashko said more than 14,000 Ukrainian companies were exporting their products to the European Union member states.