Ukraine surpasses US in corn delivery to EU

Ukraine has regained the top position as the main corn supplier to the European Union. This is evident from import figures from the European Commission. At the beginning of this season, Brazil was the main supplier of corn to the European Union. This corn mainly went to Spain, the Netherlands, and Italy. The Spaniards have taken more than half of the 3 million tonnes of corn from Brazil. In addition, shipments from the United States ramped up significantly. Until recently, the US provided the main stream of corn to the European mainland. In total, over 3.4 million tonnes of corn have come from the US. Of this, more than 2.3 million tonnes went to Spain and 740,000 tonnes to Portugal. The Netherlands has hardly bought corn from the US; not even 25,000 tonnes. At the end of January and the beginning of February, imports from the US slowed down a bit. Meanwhile, during that period a lot of corn from Ukraine arrived. Consequently, imports from Ukraine have now risen to 3.8 million tonnes. An interesting detail is that the US and Ukraine both supplied about 145,000 tonnes last week, indicating that the flow from the US has not completely ceased yet. Ukrainian corn has a wider acceptance in the EU than Brazilian and American corn. Italy is the main buyer of Ukrainian corn with over 1.5 million tonnes. It is followed by the Netherlands with 635,000 tonnes and closely behind, Spain. However, Slovenia, Greece, and Cyprus also import large quantities from Ukraine. Total imports of grain corn in the EU now amount to 11 million tonnes. Thus, imports remain over 2.1 million tonnes behind last year. Also, compared to the year before that, about 1 million tonnes less has been imported. This is remarkable, as corn production in 2025 was smaller than in the previous two years. The yields last year were not inferior to 2024, but the area was smaller. Compared to 2023, the yields were significantly lower, and this has not been sufficiently compensated by slightly more hectares.