Ukraine's agricultural products imports from EU account for over 50% of food imports in 2019

Ukraine's agricultural products imports from the European Union in 2019 were estimated US$3.13 billion, which accounted for more than 50% of the country's food imports in monetary terms.

"Shipments from Europe in monetary terms grew from US$2.695 billion in 2018 to US$3.133 billion in 2019. For the first time over Ukraine's independence, the share of European countries has exceeded half of domestic imports of agricultural products, reaching 51%," the press service of the National Scientific Center "Institute of Agrarian Economics" said on February 20.

Poland has been topping the ranking of the agricultural suppliers since 2017. In 2019, Ukraine imported from Poland farm produce worth US$659 million, which was 20% up from 2018.

Read alsoMaize tops ranking of Ukrainian exports in 2019

In total, Ukraine's agri-food imports in 2019 stood at US$6.1 billion, which was 11% up year-on-year.

At the same time, food imports from Asian countries were estimated at more than US$1.125 billion (18.3%), shipments from Latin America at US$453 million (7.4%) and from Africa at US$282 million (4.6%).

Traditionally, the following product groups account for the lion's share of Ukraine's food product imports: fruit and berry products (US$673 million), fish and mollusks (US$645 million), tobacco (US$496 million), various food products (US$440 million), oilseeds (US$340 million), as well as cocoa products and chocolate (US$327 million).

In total, the said products accounted for 55% of Ukraine's total agri-food imports in monetary terms.

As UNIAN reported earlier, Ukraine in 2019 updated its historical record of agri-exports, having supplied to foreign markets agricultural products worth US$22.4 billion, which was almost 20% up from 2018.

At the same time, Ukraine's agri-food shipment to the European Union accounted for 33.5% of the country's agri-exports.