The ministry gave no comparative data for the same date in 2022. It said Ukraine had exported 44.8 million tonnes of grain as of March 27, 2022.
The volume so far in the July to June season included about 11.9 million tonnes of wheat, 19.9 million tonnes of corn and 2.1 million tonnes of barley.
The ministry said grain exports in March had reached 1.9 million tonnes as of March 13. After an almost six-month blockade caused by Russia's invasion, three Ukrainian Black Sea ports were cleared at the end of July under a deal between Moscow and Kyiv which was brokered by the United Nations and Turkey. Ukraine has appealed to the United Nations and Turkey to press Russia to stop hindering Ukrainian grain shipments which supply millions of people, and not to use food as a weapon. A major global grain grower and exporter, Ukraine's grain output is likely to have dropped to about 54 million tonnes in clean weight in the 2022 calendar year, down from a record 86 million tonnes in 2021. Officials have blamed the fall on hostilities in the country's eastern, northern and southern regions. (Reporting by Pavel Polityuk, editing by Ed Osmond)
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