By KYIV. Nov 14 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The turnover of foreign trade in agri-food products between Ukraine and the Asian states for the eight months of 2022 decreased by 38% compared to January-August 2021, to $5.16 billion from $8.35 billion, and the surplus for Ukraine on this trade direction amounted to $3.66 billion.
According to the website of the Institute of Agrarian Economics (IAE), such a decrease in mutual trade is caused by the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine and the long-term blocking of the country’s seaports, which destroyed the established logistics chains.
It is specified that the main buyers of Ukrainian agricultural products in the Asian region in 2022 were Turkey, China, India, Saudi Arabia, Iran, South Korea and Iraq, which accounted for 81% of the cost of supplies from Ukraine. In turn, Ukraine buys agricultural products from Turkey, China, Indonesia and India, the share of these countries amounted to 4/5 of the cost of domestic purchases in the Asian region.
"In January-August 2022, Asia traditionally focuses on acquiring key groups of domestic exports – grain crops ($1.954 billion), oils and fats ($1.35 billion), oilseeds ($334 million), meat products ($267 million), as well as residues and processing industry waste ($264 million)," Mykola Puhachev, deputy director of the IAE, said.
He specified that Ukraine imports mainly citrus fruits, palm oil, vegetables, sunflower seeds, coffee and tea from Asian countries.
At the same time, despite the loss by the Asian region of the status of the main market for Ukrainian food in favor of the EU, it remains among the most priority and promising.
