Results of foreign trade in the first half of 2024 and 2023/2024 MR

Ukrainian exporters increased physical sales of their goods by 35% in the first half of 2024. This is compared to the same period last year. In total, 71 million tonnes were exported. This was announced by Yuliia Svyrydenko, First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy of Ukraine.

In total, export transactions for 6 months brought in USD 19.5 billion, the same as in the first half of 2023.

“The increase in the physical volume of exports of Ukrainian goods was primarily due to the stable operation of the Ukrainian Sea Corridor. In addition, with the support of the Government, businesses were able to expand other logistics routes. All this resulted in a 35% increase in physical exports. However, exporters’ revenues remained at the same level as last year amid an increase in the weight of goods sold. This is because global prices for the main export commodities sold abroad by Ukrainian producers fell significantly over the year.

On the other hand, a positive trend was the decline in exports of raw materials and a gradual increase in exports of processed goods. I would like to recall that increasing the share of processing in GDP and strengthening non-resource exports is the goal of the Government’s Made in Ukraine policy. Thus, in the last marketing year, we exported sunflower seeds by 86.3% less than a year ago, while exports of sunflower oil increased significantly,” said Yuliia Svyrydenko.

At the same time, Taras Kachka, Deputy Minister of Economy and Trade Representative of Ukraine, said that the largest export volumes were in April and May. It was during this time that farmers actively exported last year’s harvest.

Exports of Ukrainian products in June totalled 9.7 million tonnes worth USD 2.7 billion. Compared to May, the decrease was -18.4% in terms of money and -20.2% in terms of volume.

Taras Kachka explained that exports fell in June due to a decrease in the export of agricultural products. Corn was exported by 23.7% less than in May, wheat – by 40.8%, and oil – by 37.8%. This indicates that exporters are running out of last year’s harvest stocks.

“The situation remained stable in the top ten most popular Ukrainian exports in June. Sales of ore decreased by 1.5% to USD 239 million compared to May, while exports of flat products increased by 7% to USD 79 million. Poultry sales decreased by 3.5% to USD 79 million, while soybean exports increased by 45% to USD 66 million.

Imports of goods to Ukraine in June also decreased by 5.6% to USD 4.8 billion. In general, in the first half of the year, our country imported goods worth USD 31.9 billion, which is 4.9% more than in the first half of last year,” explained Taras Kachka.

The Ministry of Economy also summed up the results of the 2023/2024 marketing year, which ended on 30 June. During this period, Ukrainian exporters sold a total of 69.86 million tonnes of goods from the categories of grains, oilseeds and oils.

Wheat exports totalled 18.43 million tonnes, up 9% year-on-year. Corn was sold in the amount of 29.41 million tonnes, up 0.2% year-on-year. Sales of barley decreased to 2.48 million tonnes (-8.5%) and soybeans to 2.98 million tonnes (-8.2%). At the same time, sales of rapeseed increased to 3.7 million tonnes (+8.7%). Exports of agro-processed products also increased significantly: sunflower oil – 6.54 million tonnes (+22.8%), sunflower meal – 5.15 million tonnes (+29.1%), and soybean meal – 0.662 million tonnes (+12.5%).