Ukraine's revenue from farm produce exports grows to almost US$18 bln in 2017

Revenue from Ukraine's farm produce exports in 2017 grew by 16.3% against 2016, to more than US$17.9 billion.

"In 2017, exports of Ukrainian agrarian and food products showed very positive results and were estimated at over $17.9 billion. In the preceding year, the figure was $15.5 billion. Today, the share of exports in the total volume of foreign trade in farm produce and foods is 79.4%," Ukrainian Deputy Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine Olha Trofimtseva says, as reported by the ministry's press service.

Read alsoExpert says farmers provide over 41% of Ukrainian exportsThe official also noted that the country's foreign trade turnover of agrarian and food products stood at $22.6 billion in January-December 2017.

According to Trofimtseva, the top three staples of Ukrainian farm produce and food exports were grain crops (36.2%), vegetable oils (25.1%), and oilseeds (11.3%).

"But the increase in Ukrainian exports was not only due to these groups of products. Ukraine significantly boosted shipments of processed products and foodstuffs. For example, these are butter exports, which grew by $92.2 million against 2016; sugar (by $49.7 million), malt extracts, as well as flour and cereal products (by $48.8 million), fresh or frozen beans (by $44.3 million), frozen beef (by $39.2 million), and other processed foodstuffs," she said.

Read alsoUkraine sees over $5 bln in revenue from agriexports to EUTotal crop exports rose by $2.1 billion in 2017, to $16.7 billion, while livestock exports grew by $371.4 million, to almost $1.3 billion.

"To date, the map of our agricultural exports is as follows: the Asian countries account for 42.6%, the European Union for 32.4%, the African countries for 14.2%, the CIS for 7.6%, the United States for 0.4%, and other countries for 2.8%," the deputy minister added.

According to the official, the top five countries that bought Ukrainian farm produce and foodstuffs in 2017 to the tune of over $1 billion, each, were India, the Netherlands, Egypt, Spain, and China.

As UNIAN reported earlier, Ukrainian farmers in 2017 exported food products worth $17.8 billion, which accounted for over 41% of Ukrainian exports, according to the National Scientific Center "Institute of Agrarian Economy."

The center says Ukraine shipped 41.8 million tonnes of grain abroad; the shipments included 19.4 million tonnes of maize, 17.3 million tonnes of wheat, and 4.9 million tonnes of barley.

The country in 2017 also saw record high exports of soybean (2.9 million tonnes), sunflower oil (5.8 million tonnes), sugar (almost 600,000 tonnes), and sunflower cake (4.9 million tonnes).