The volume so far in the current July-to-June season included about 13.9 million tonnes of wheat, 24 million tonnes of corn and 2.4 million tonnes of barley.
The ministry said grain exports during April were almost 2.8 million tonnes as of April 24. After a blockade caused by Russia's invasion on Feb. 24 2022, access to three Ukrainian Black Sea ports was cleared at the end of last July under a deal between Moscow and Kyiv brokered by the United Nations and Turkey. A major grain grower and exporter, Ukraine's grain output is likely to have dropped to about 53 million tonnes in clean weight in the 2022 calendar year from a record 86 million tonnes in 2021. Officials have blamed the fall on hostilities in the country's eastern, northern and southern regions. The government has said Ukraine can harvest up to 50 million tones of grain in 2023 if weather favours. (Reporting by Pavel Polityuk, Editing by Timothy Heritage)
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