Ukraine sees over $5 bln in revenue from agriexports to EU

"The foreign trade turnover between Ukraine and the EU states in January-November 2017 increased by 31.1% or $1.715 billion, compared with the same period in 2016, and amounted to $7.2 billion," the report said.

Ukrainian agriexports to the EU countries in 2016 stood at $4.2 billion.

"We are pleased to note that the Ukraine-EU free trade deal is being implemented, which is reflected in specific figures of our bilateral trade turnover growth in the agrarian and food sectors. We also hope that the positive trend will prevail, taking into account our efforts to bringing the Ukrainian legislation closer to EU standards," the press service quoted Deputy Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine Olha Trofimtseva as saying.

Major commodity groups that Ukraine exported to the EU over the period under review were grain ($1.4 billion), sunflower oil ($1.3 billion), and oilseeds ($0.9 billion).

Read alsoUkraine's Agrarian Fund boosts flour exports by 70% in 2017"Along with the said traditional exported products, we significantly increased exports of such products as malt extract and products from flour and cereals (by $31.7 million), bakery and confectionery products (by $15.4 million), butter (by $12.4 million), casein ($11.9 million), chocolate and other products containing cocoa (by $7.9 million), etc.," Trofimtseva said.

According to her, the top five EU countries that bought Ukrainian farm produce in the 11 months of 2017 were the Netherlands with a share of 18.4%, Spain (14.4%), Poland (13.3%), Italy (11.8%), and Germany (10.3%).

As UNIAN reported earlier, according to the ministry, Ukrainian farmers in 2016 supplied agrarian products worth $4.242 billion to the European Union markets, which was 1.6% up against 2015. Thus, the EU market in 2016 accounted for 27.5% of Ukraine’s total agriexports.

Read alsoUkraine's government forecasts 10% rise in exports to US$55.7 bln in 2018The EU additional trade preferences for Ukraine, which were finally approved by the European Parliament on September 13, 2017, entered into force on October 1, with the exception of export liberalization for barley, wheat, and maize that entered into force on January 1, 2018.