Almost 30% of Spanish corn imports come from Ukraine

These are some of the data on trade in agri-food products between Spain and Ukraine: 27.6% of Spain's corn imports come from Ukraine, almost 60% of purchases of sunflower oil, 13% of wheat, 31% of vegetable oil cakes and 15.4% of grain legumes.

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The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food has published a report on trade between Spain and Ukraine. It shows that the Spanish agri-food trade balance with that country is clearly in deficit.

Spanish exports of agri-food products to Ukraine represent 0.2% of the total, while imports account for 3.5% (7%, if only those from third countries are taken into account).

In 2019, Spain acquired nearly 6 million tons of Ukrainian products, worth almost 1.3 billion euros. Exports of 67,000 tons of Spanish products were worth some 118 million euros (Table 1). The deficit of the Spanish agro-food balance with Ukraine exceeded one billion euros last year, 20% more than in 2018 and 27% higher than the deficit in 2015.

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Table 1. 2015-2019 Trade between Spain and Ukraine in agri-food products

By products (Table 2), corn imports stand out, which in 2018 reached 2.8 million tons, with a value of 460 million Euros.

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Table 2. Main products imported by Spain from Ukraine in 2018

That year, Ukrainian corn represented 27.6% of the total imports of that cereal by Spain. Spain became the second destination of Ukrainian corn exports (Graph 1).

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Graph 1. Main products imported by Spain from Ukraine between 2016 and 2018 The dark line represents Ukraine's share of Spanish imports

Spanish exports to Ukraine are much less relevant (Table 3). Sixty percent of these are concentrated in five products, which, according to data from 2018, were: frozen fish (18%), other canned vegetables (12%), sunflower seeds (12%), coffee or tea extracts, essences and concentrates (10%) and wine and must (8%).

Table 3. Main products exported by Spain to Ukraine in 2018

Main UE exporters and importers to Ukraine

The ministry's report also includes data on EU trade with Ukraine, which also shows a favorable trade balance for Ukraine of more than 5.5 billion euros in 2019 (Table 4).

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Table 4. 2015-2019 Agrifood trade between the EU and Ukraine

Spain is the seventh EU country with the highest exports to Ukraine (5% share). The Netherlands ranks third (13% share). In terms of imports, Spain is in second place (18% share), while the Netherlands is in first place (24% share) (Table 5).

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Table 5. Main EU exporters and importers to Ukraine

The full report in Spanish can be found here: https://bit.ly/3frOMkl

Source: Ministerio de Agricultura, Pesca y Alimentación