October 27 2004, 11:22 APK-Inform

"Agroexport" to export 500,000 to 600,000 t of grain in this season

Nikolaev-based Close Joint Stock Company Agroexport is planning to export 500,000 to 600,000 tonnes of grains in this season, of which 350,000 tonnes are to be exported until December 31, 2004, the Company Director Hennady Zhyltsov tols an APK-Inform reporter Wednesday.

To reduce shipment costs, Agroexport commissioned the first 36,000-tonne line of the new grain shipping terminal in Nikolaev river port earlier this month. Zhyltsov said the company was going to use this terminal for shipments of its own grain only. The complete facility with rated shipping capacity of 50,000 tonnes is to be put in operation in mid-December, he said.

Besides that, the company has also started grain shipments this month from a new shipping point, located in Berezansky Liman, where it constructed two berths with total shipping capacities of up to 3,000 tonnes of grain per day. The 4-metre deep berths allow to load the 2,000 and 3,000-tonne ships with the grain, supplied from the two adjacent grain elevators (one for 37,000 and the other for 20,000 tonnes of capacity), belonging to the company.

Zhyltsov said the company had exported over 170,000 tonnes of feed grains as of this moment, 80 percent of which was feed barley. The main export crops that Agroexport plans to ship in this season are feed barley, wheat and maize.

Agroexport is one of the largest grain traders in Ukraine. It exported 1 million tonnes of grains in 2001/02 and 2002/03 marketing years each.

Today the company owns a 130,000-tonne grain storage facility in Nikolaev port and has 800,000 tonnes of total storage capacity in all its grain terminals and elevators. It also has its own trading fleet with 30,000 tonnes of total capacity, an oil extraction plant and a newly-built oil-filling facility in Nikolaev river port.