Romania became the largest importer of Ukrainian grain in 2022

In 2022, Ukraine exported 38.5 million tons of domestic grain. Revenue from the export of Ukrainian grain amounted to $9.1 billion last year.

“Strengthening of the European vector in the domestic export of grain has led to significant changes in the rating of the main consumers of this type of agricultural products,” Mykola Pugachev, deputy director of the National Research Center “Institute of Agrarian Economy”, is quoted by Elevatorist.

Exported to foreign markets in 2022:

• corn — 25.0 million tons, which is 1% more than in 2021 (24.7 million tons);

• wheat — 11.2 million tons (-44%);

• barley — 2.1 million tons, 3.6 million tons less than a year earlier;

• rye — about 53,000 tons, a decrease of 61%.

The largest buyers of domestic grain in 2022, as before, were the countries of Asia, Africa and Europe. At the same time, the emphasis on the European market increased last year.

China, which since 2020 confidently held the lead in the top 10 largest importers of Ukrainian grain, in 2022 yielded to Romania, which in 2021 was not even among the top 20 main grain consumers. If in 2021 the value of supplies of this type of agricultural products to Romania amounted to only $1.8 million, then in 2022 they increased significantly and reached $1,243 million. Last year, Romania’s share in the domestic export of grain amounted to 13.6% of the export value of this product group.

China with a share of 12.1% secured the second place in the ranking.

Turkey, which in 2021 took third place in the list of the main consumers of Ukrainian grain, in 2022 with a share of 9.6% fell to the 4th place in the ranking, giving way to Spain, whose share was 10.8%.

In addition, in 2022, there were changes in the top ten buyers of grain in Ukraine: Romania, Poland, Italy, Hungary, and South Korea displaced Indonesia, Iran, Pakistan, Libya, and Tunisia from the top 10.