Canada fills Ukrainian grain gap

ESTERN PRODUCER — Canadian wheat is making inroads in a variety of Asian markets as Ukraine’s presence abates, according to a Ukrainian brokerage firm.

Ukraine exported 8.4 million tonnes of wheat through the first half of 2022-23 versus 15.9 million tonnes for the same period one year ago, according to an analysis by Christina Serebryakova, head of analytics at Atria Brokers.

In an opinion piece published on APK-Inform, she said the country is having difficulty competing with other exporters due to “extremely difficult logistics.”

Those logistical problems are not getting any better with Russia threatening to scuttle the United Nations-brokered grain corridor agreement that expires on May 18.

Meanwhile, the European Union is preparing emergency measures to ban Ukrainian grain imports into Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Romania and Bulgaria. Farmers in those countries are fed up with the price-damping effect of the flood of Ukrainian grain pouring across their borders.

Canada’s market share is growing in a variety of Asian markets as Ukraine’s recedes.

“Ukraine dominated the Indonesian market before the war, but now our share here is insignificant,” Serebryakova said in her opinion piece.

Ukraine shipped 345,600 tonnes of wheat to that market during the first half of 2022-23, down from 2.7 million tonnes for the same period one year ago.

Indonesia instead purchased 2.45 million tonnes from Australia, a 46 percent increase from year-ago levels, and 861,000 tonnes from Canada, a 66 percent jump, according to Serebryakova.