Ukraine spring grain planting delayed by weather

Ukraine planted spring grains to March 31 on only 469,000 hectares out of the total area to be planted of 7.646 million hectares, with planting being considerably slowed down by adverse weather conditions in all regions of the country, the agriculture ministry said Tuesday (March 31).

Last year, Ukraine planted spring grains on 2.653 million hectares, or 35 percent of the total planned area, to April 1, and in 2007 the area planted to March 30 was 4.152 million hectares or 53 percent of the planned total area.

The agriculture ministry said earlier Ukraine was likely to harvest this year 45 million tonnes of grain, which is less than the 53.3 million tonnes harvested in 2008, but is higher than the average annual harvest in the last few years.