Ukraine sees 3% decline in grain consumption annually – expert

"Over the past five seasons, the domestic consumption of grain and leguminous crops has shrunk by 15%, or by an average of 3% annually," the press service quoted the agency's analyst Andriy Kupchenko as saying.

The domestic grain consumption in the 2017-2018 marketing year (MY, July 2017 – June 2018) could reach 23.8 million tonnes, which corresponds to the consumption of the previous 2016-2017 MY (23.7 million tonnes), whereas it 6% down against the figure of the 2015-2016 MY (25.3 million tonnes), the report said.

"The expected relative stability of the indicator in the current season is due to the active export of flour and the preservation of the [grain] processing rate in this regard," Kupchenko said.

Read alsoUkraine exports almost nine mln tonnes of grainAs UNIAN reported earlier, the gross grain harvest will exceed the needs of the domestic market several times this year, and create a significant resource for the production and export of value-added products, according to First Deputy Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine Maksym Martyniuk.

The Agrarian Policy and Food Ministry forecasts grain yield at 60.2-63 million tonnes in the 2017-2018 MY, depending on weather conditions.

Ukraine harvested 65.95 million tonnes of grain and leguminous crops in 2016, which was 9.7% up from 2015, and a record high over the country's independence.