January 12, 2011

Ukraine's 2011 grain yield may soar on good weather

Favourable weather in Ukraine and an increase in the sowing land are seen to boost the country's grain crop to 46.2 million tonnes in 2011 from 39.2 million in 2010, UkrAgroConsult consultancy said Tuesday (Jan 11).

The ex-Soviet republic is likely to increase the harvest of all key grains including wheat, barley and corn, the agricultural consultancy said.

"Taking into account winter crop conditions and regional forecasts for spring planted areas, we can expect that the grain planted area will reach 15.6 million hectares and the total crop will amount to 46.2 million tonnes," UkrAgroConsult said.

Most of the winter crops are in good or satisfactory condition, it said.

The consultancy forecast that Ukraine could harvest 21 million tonnes of wheat, 11 million tonnes of barley and 11.7 million tonnes of corn in 2011.

Final results for grain production in 2010 have not been published yet.

Oleksander Demydov, the head of the farm ministry's planting department, said on Tuesday (Jan 11) Ukraine harvested 39.3 million tonnes of grain last year, according to preliminary data.

The government had said the severe drought in 2010 would cut the grain harvest to about 40 million tonnes in clean weight in 2010 from 46 million in 2009.

The 2010 drop has forced the government to impose grain export quotas for the first nine months of the 2010/11 season, which runs from July to June.