Features
Business & Policy
Business Management
Black Sea will have less grain in 2009
Oct. 8, 2009 -According to sources with the United States Grains Council (USGC), Russian grain production in the Black Sea region, particularly in corn, will be down 30 percent in 2009, yet will still put it ahead of the region's average annual production by nearly half a million US tons.
October 8, 2009 By United States Grains Council
Oct. 8, 2009
Black Sea feed grains production will reportedly decrease by roughly 19 million metric tons this year to 156 million tons. At the 2009 US Grains Council International Staff Conference, Alex Kholopov, USGC consultant in Russia, said Russia’s corn production is projected at 4.7 million tons (185 million bushels), down from last year’s 6.7 million tons (263.8 million bushels), which is still above the average production of 4.2 million tons (165.3 million bushels). Russia’s barley production is expected to be down 5 million tons (229.6 million bushels) this year to 17.8 million tons (817.5 million bushels).
"Russia’s corn exports will be a mere 100,000 to 200,000 tons (3.9 to 7.9 million bushels), which is a substantial decrease from last year’s record 1.3 million tons (51.2 million bushels)," said Kholopov. "Most of Russia’s corn exports last year went to Egypt. The largest Russian barley buyer was Saudi Arabia."
Total Black Sea (Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan) feed grains exports are expected to drop this year to 38 million tons from last year’s 50 million tons. Ukraine’s corn exports are projected at 3 million tons (118.1 million bushels). Ukraine is also likely to export 5.6 million tons (205.8 million bushels) of feed wheat and 6 million tons (275.6 million bushels) of feed barley. Russia is still expected to have enough feed ingredients to remain competitive in the global marketplace.
"Russia is expected to export 5 million tons (183.7 million bushels) of feed wheat and 1.4 million tons (64.3 million bushels) of feed barley," said Kholopov. He said Russia and the Ukraine will likely have 21 million tons of feed grains to export. Ken Hobbie, USGC president and CEO, said the Council is focused on defending US market share.
"In order to remain competitive against feed wheat and barley out of the Black Sea region, we are going to have to continue to work harder at marketing the US advantage," said Hobbie. "We have reliability, quality and technical expertise on our side. I assure you we will work overtime to demonstrate the advantage of using US feed ingredients."
ingredients."
