Ukraine may cut rapeseed exports in 2020 over the amendments to the EU legislation that came into force in February 2020.
In particular, the relevant amendments banned the use of insecticides containing chlorpyrifos and chlorpyrifos-methyl, and thus imports into the EU are not allowed if the residual content of these substances in products exceeds 0.01 mg/kg, according to the GrainTrade analytical portal.
"It can block the supply of rapeseed from Ukraine to the EU as farmers use these substances to grow the crops. Almost 90% of Ukrainian rapeseed is exported to the EU, therefore the question of determining the presence of chlorpyrifos and chlorpyrifos-methyl in the batches delivered to grain storage facilities or port terminals will be very acute," reads the report.
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What is more, only several accredited laboratories can carry out tests to detect the substances; Ukrainian legislation does not regulate the content of them in rapeseed and laboratories located at grain storage facilities and terminals will not be able to conduct such tests.
Head of Analytics at UkrAgroConsult Yulia Garkavenko said the rapeseed crop in Ukraine in the MY 2020/2021 (July 2020 through June 2021) would be reduced to 3 million tonnes and exports to 2.5-2.6 million tonnes.
Ukraine may have problems with the delivery of 1-1.5 million tonnes of rapeseed to the EU over the presence of chlorpyrifos.
Even if the exports into the EU are blocked, Ukraine will be able to boost the processing of the seeds locally with subsequent exports of rapeseed oil to China, which now accounts for 71% of total exports of this produce from Ukraine.
As UNIAN reported earlier, the Ministry for Development of Economy, Trade and Agriculture predicts that the harvest of grain and leguminous crops in Ukraine this year might exceed 68 million tonnes, while that of oilseeds could be 20 million tonnes.
