Miller Magazine Issue: 124 April 2020

95 MARKET ANALYSIS MILLER / APRIL 2020 approach of Ramadan pushed key buyers of the Black Sea grain to inc- rease the pace of procurement in or- der to form the maximum reserves of raw materials for bread. This led to the fact that Russia and Ukraine, alt- hough they have sufficient reserves of wheat, announced the conditional figure of the export limit before the end of the season. Although analysts say these numbers are within expe- ctations. Unexpected for the market was a complete ban on the export of wheat, including from Romania. A few weeks ago, local mills in pri- vate conversations complained that prices were very high and there was strong competition with exporters. The result was not long in coming. The limits voiced by Ukraine and Russia, in fact, are fully consistent with the previously stated export ex- pectations. Even at the time of signing the memoran- dum between the Ministry of Economy and exporters, after harvesting, Ukraine set a maximum annual limit of wheat exports of 20 MMT. Russia also took steps to voice the borders of grain exports, and the 7MMT