New Ukrainian grain contracts on hold over crisis in Crimea

Foreign trading houses have not resumed concluding new grain exports contracts due to continued tensions between Ukraine and Russia, Ukraine’s agriculture minister Ihor Shvaika said yesterday.

“They are still waiting and there are no new contracts,” Shvaika told Reuters.

Ukraine said it hoped the crisis in Crimea could soon be resolved through dialogue. Political instability and violence had caused some traders in Ukraine, the third-biggest maize exporter in the world, to hold back from agreeing new contracts, while Russian maize export prices have been rising for two weeks.