State Food-Grain Corporation supplies 800,000 t of grain to China, says Ukrainian minister
Public joint-stock company State Food-Grain Corporation has supplied 800,000 tonnes of grain under a contract signed with Export-Import Bank of China.
"The contract says that we are to supply 2 million tonnes by the end of the calendar year. Today, we've shipped 800,000 tonnes. Now another 100,000 tones is being loaded," Agricultural Policy and Food Minister Mykola Prysiazhniuk said at a press conference held during the Ukrainian Grain Congress in Kyiv on Wednesday, October 23.
The minister said that the delay with harvesting corn this year forced many grain traders operating in Ukraine to alter their supply schedule.
He said that he was confident that the State Food-Grain Corporation would fulfill its liabilities to its Chinese partners on time.
He noted that under the contract, the corporation is to supply 8 million tonnes of grain in 2013/14 agricultural year (July-June) and 2014/15 agricultural year. In coming years the supplies will be increased to 6 million tonnes during one agricultural year.
In August 2010, the government decided to create the State Food and Grain Corporation of Ukraine. The corporation has a chain of branches – grain storage facilities, flourmills, fodder factories and a cereals factory. The 44 subdivisions of the corporation can store a total of 3.46 million tonnes of grain, which includes the grain handling capacities of Odesa and Mykolaiv ports of 2.38 million tonnes of grain cargo per year.
Under cabinet resolution of July 24, 2013, the government has transferred another 16 elevators, centers of grain production, bread bases, mills, fodder and cereal plants to the management of the corporation.
The State Food and Grain Corporation of Ukraine in late 2012 received the first tranche of $1.5 billion from the Export-Import Bank of China. It was planned that the funds will be sent to carry out spot and forward purchases of four million tonnes of grain, which will be shipped to China.
China National Machinery Industry Complete Engineering Corporation (CMCEC) is the operator under the contract, which was signed for a period of 15 years.
