He said the state fund needed money to close a forward contract and gave no further details of the deal. Traders and the ministry agreed earlier this year that the 2012/13 season's wheat exports would not exceed 6 million tonnes. The ministry has also said it would allow traders to implement all already concluded deals.
According to official data, the former Soviet republic had exported 5.7 million tonnes of wheat as of December 18. An additional 106,000 tonnes are already loaded on ships and 119,000 tonnes of the commodity are awaiting shipment in port silos. Ukraine's wheat output fell by a third to about 15.7 million tonnes in 2012 due to drought conditions The State Statistics Service this week said Ukraine's wheat stocks fell to 6.5 million tonnes as of December 1 from 8.2 million a month earlier, just enough to safeguard domestic needs for the rest of the season. Ukraine consumes 12 million tonnes of wheat per season.