KIEV: Foreign trading houses have not resumed concluding new grain exports contracts due to continued tensions between Ukraine and Russia, Ukraine’s Agriculture Minister Ihor Shvaika said yesterday.
“They are still waiting and there are no new contracts,” Shvaika said.
Political instability and violence had caused some traders in Ukraine, the world’s third-biggest maize exporter, to hold back from agreeing new contracts, while Russian maize export prices have been rising for two weeks.
Ukrainian grain lobby UAC said that traders were continuing grain exports from terminals in Crimea despite tensions.
UAC said in a statement 45,000 tonnes of Ukrainian maize had been sent from terminals in Sevastopol to Italy and Spain in the last two days.
But the lobby said that it expected a decrease in shipments in the near future.Reuters
