OREANDA-NEWS. March 24, 2015. China, the world's second-largest corn consumer, imported 574,000 tonnes of corn from Ukraine in February, nearly triple the level taken in the same month a year ago, official customs data showed on Monday.

The February imports bring the total shipped from the Black Sea nation to 1.04 million tonnes for the first two months of 2015, more than five times the shipments in the same period last year, the General Administration of Customs data showed.

China increased grains imports from Ukraine under a loan-for-grain deal beginning in 2013. Corn imports from the former Soviet republic accounted for more than 90 percent of China's total imports of the grain last month.

State Food and Grain Corporation of Ukraine will supply a total of 80 million tonnes of grains for 15 years under a deal with China National Complete Engineering Corporation (CCEC), according to the Chinese company.

The contract between the two companies resulted in the shipment of 1.5 million tonnes of grains worth \\$334 million to China in 2014, said CCEC in a statement posted on its website (www.cmcec.com).

And this year, Chinese companies have recently signed new deals to purchase another 600,000 tonnes from the country under the Ukraine-CCEC deal.

China imported 602,947 tonnes of corn in February, a rise of 26 percent from a year before, the customs data showed.

Imports from the United States, the world's top exporter, fell 93 percent from a year before to 13,663 tonnes for the month.

China's imports of distillers grains (DDGs), a by-product of corn-based ethanol, fell 79 percent in February from a year ago to 80,266 tonnes. China imports almost all DDGs from United States, the world's top supplier. China imports DDGs to substitute corn and meal.