Wheat may be the big market factor following Russia’s withdrawal from the Black Sea Grain Initiative, but Ukraine also exports corn.

“Ukraine is projected to be the fourth largest exporter of corn this year,” says Kim Anderson, emeritus faculty, agricultural economics, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater. “They are normally the third largest exporter of corn, usually 15% of the corn export market. They'll be at 10% this year.”

“I think wheat is still the big one,” says Mark Welch, professor and Extension economist--grain marketing, Texas A&M AgriLife, College Station. “But Ukraine is a relatively large producer of corn as well, 25 million metric tons of corn.”

That compares to 17 and a half million metric tons of wheat. “They are a bigger corn producer and they export a larger percentage of their corn crop. So it does matter in corn.”

But corn coming out of the Black Sea Region is not as big a market factor as wheat.

“The world capacity for corn in terms of the major exporters, once you get out of the U.S. and Brazil, is not  as big a factor as wheat. The other players export much smaller percentages,” Welch says.

“Brazil is now the number one exporter of corn,” Anderson says. But Ukraine’s reduced export potential could have an impact, especially with an increasing worldwide demand for protein.

That increased demand puts more pressure on feed grain markets, Anderson said.