March 13, 2012

Ukraine's 2012 grain harvest forecast up to 45 million tonnes

Ukraine's 2012 grain harvest forecast was raised by Kiev-based consultancy ProAgro on Monday (Mar 12) to 45.66 million tonnes from a previous outlook of 42.64 million.
 

The former Soviet republic was likely to harvest 21.3 million tonnes of corn and 14.3 million tonnes of wheat this year, the consultancy said in a note.

Last month ProAgro forecast Ukraine's corn production at 17.7 million tonnes and the wheat harvest at 14.6 million.

Ukraine's Farm Minister Mykola Prysyazhnyuk said last month the ministry expected a harvest of between 42-50 million tonnes this year.

Ukraine consumes 26 million tonnes of grain per season, including up to 12 million tonnes of wheat. Ukraine harvested a record 56.7 million tonnes of grain in 2011 but a severe drought in July-November and deep frosts in January-February have damaged about 30% of winter crops sown for the 2012 harvest.

The ministry also said farms were likely to reseed damaged winter crops with corn, barley and soya. It said the area under corn could rise to five million hectares this year from 3.6 million in 2011.

ProAgro said the area sown for corn would not exceed 4.3 million hectares and the corn yields could decrease to five tonnes per hectare from 5.79 in 2011.