Ukraine sold a record amount of wheat to India
India has become the largest buyer of Ukrainian wheat in the world. This year, the country imported approximately 1.5 million tons of this grain crop, Interfax-Ukraine reported, quoting grain market expert Elizabeth Malyshko.
“From July to December, India imported approximately 1.5 million tons and topped the ratings of importer-countries of Ukrainian wheat since the beginning of the market season,” Malyshko said. Thailand and Indonesia with 1.4 and 1.3 million tons respectively are the other two top importers of Ukrainian wheat.
According Malyshko, the main reason for an increase in India’s purchases of wheat was the reduction of import duties on wheat at the beginning of the season from 25% to 10%, as well as the removal of import duties in December 2016 due to the growing demand for this crop in the country.
At the same time, approximately 3,000 tons of wheat were supplied from Russia to India for the period from July to November 2016. Kazakhstan supplied no wheat at all. According to the report of the United States Department of Agriculture, India could import about 3 million tons of wheat in 2016-2017, while last year imports amounted to only 300,000 tons.
Ukraine took the export wheat market in India, outpacing France, who is considered the second largest food consumer in the world market. It was also reported that Russia started having problems due to the record harvests of wheat in Ukraine and Romania.