Photo from UNIAN
Mainly grain, oilseeds, and vegetable oil were exported to the EU.
Ukrainian Deputy Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food Olha Trofimtseva says Ukraine in 2018 boosted farm produce exports to the European Union by 8.7% from 2017, to US$6.3 billion.
"In 2018, foreign trade in agricultural products between Ukraine and the EU member states increased by 11.4% compared with 2017 and exceeded $9 billion, including $6.3 billion in Ukrainian farm produce exports, which was 8.7% up against 2017," the ministry's press service quoted Trofimtseva as saying on January 31.
Read alsoUkraine boosts agri-exports to Saudi Arabia
"Ukrainian agri-exports to EU countries continue growing annually: they were a bit over $4 billion in 2016, $5.8 billion in 2017, and $6.3 billion in 2018. Such dynamics clearly show the success of the Ukraine-EU Free Trade Area [FTA] agreement in the field of agriculture. This gives us every reason to say that Ukrainian manufacturers are competitive in the markets of European countries and can successfully export their products in line with the highest quality and safety standards," the official added.
Major staples in shipments to the EU market in 2018 were grain worth over $2.2 billion, oilseeds worth $1.1 billion and vegetable oil worth $1.1 billion.
Trofimtseva added that in 2018 there was an increase in exports to the EU states of such agricultural and food products as food industry residues and waste, poultry meat and edible offal, fruit, nuts, vegetables, plants and root crops. In addition, shipments of products made of grain and cereals, honey, juices, confectionery and other products grew as well.
Major buyers of Ukrainian farm produce over the period under review were the Netherlands (almost $1.2 billion), Spain ($1.04 billion), Italy ($737.9 million), Germany ($667.4 million), and Poland ($656.7 million).
At the same time, imports of agricultural products from the EU countries to Ukraine in 2018 rose by $420.7 million against 2017, to $2.7 billion. In particular, Ukraine imported chocolate and cocoa bean products, tobacco and products made of it, animal feed products, meat and offal, as well as alcoholic beverages. Poland was in the lead in terms of agri-exports to Ukraine with shipments worth $556.1 million. It is followed by Germany with $492.6 million, Italy with $276.6 million, France with $242.1 million, and Spain with 147.7 million.
As UNIAN reported earlier, Ukrainian agri-exports to the EU countries in 2017 grew by over 37%, to $5.8 billion.
Total revenue from exports of Ukrainian agrarian products in 2017 rose by 16.3% against 2016, to over $17.9 billion.