March 25, 2004

Ukraine To Increase Corn Acreage 25%

Ukraine expects to increase its corn planted area to 2.625 million hectares in 2004, Deputy Prime Minister Ivan Kirilenko said in Kiev Wednesday.
 
The agriculture ministry had planned to plant corn on 2.1 million hectares, little changed from 2003 levels, but owing to excessive exports the government decided to increase the harvest to minimize shortages on the domestic market.
 
Ukraine harvested 6.9 million metric tons of corn in 2003, compared with 4.17 million tons in 2002.