January 19, 2012

Ukraine to raise 2012 corn output

Targeting a total area of 4.3 million hectares, Ukraine wants to increase its area under corn by 700,000 hectares in 2012, Farm Minister Mykola Prysyazhnyuk said on Wednesday (Jan 18).

"We will be recommending increasing the area under corn by 700,000 hectares. This will be compensation for the loss of winter grain," he told journalists.

According to Ukraine's State Statistics Service, farms harvested 3.5 million hectares of corn in 2011 and threshed a record 22.8 million tonnes.

Prysyazhnyuk said that 2.3 million hectares of Ukrainian winter grain crops, or 33.5% of the sprouted area of seven million hectares, were in poor condition as of mid-January due to a severe drought that hit the country during sowing. He said winter wheat dominated the damaged area.

"The condition of winter grains remains critical. The drought prevented us getting good shoots while over an area of 1.4 million hectares we have no shoots at all," Prysyazhnyuk said.

"We will be forced to re-seed about two million hectares this spring".

Prysyazhnyuk said farmers would also be encouraged to enlarge the area under barley, soy, peas and other cereals. The ministry last month said the area sown for spring barley in 2012 could rise by 260,000 hectares to 2.85 million and other cereals by 141,000 hectares to 951,000. He said last week that the 2012 grain harvest could fall to 44-46 million tonnes because of a sharp decrease in wheat production to about 12 million tonnes from 22.3 million in 2010.

UkrAgroConsult said this month that the former Soviet republic could harvest 44.7 million tonnes of grain this year, including 14.5 million tonnes of wheat. The consultancy said the wheat area which would be harvested in 2012 is likely to fall to 5.45 million hectares from 6.69 million in 2011. It also said the harvest of corn could increase to 18 million tonnes in 2012 from 17 million in 2010. It said the area under corn could rise by 300,000 hectares this year.

Ukraine, which consumes about 12 million tonnes of wheat per season, has no reason to impose export curbs at the moment even if there's a fall in the 2012 wheat harvest, Prysyazhnyuk said. The country has exported 2.7 million tonnes of wheat so far this season while the exportable surplus totalled about 10 million tonnes in 2011/12. Ukraine exported four million tonnes of wheat in the first half of last season.

"We have no reason to limit exports of wheat unless the export volumes become too large," Prysyazhnyuk said. He said that Ukraine's grain exports might total 22-24 million tonnes in 2011/12 compared to 12.7 million in 2010/11. He said corn could dominate the shipments. Ukraine limited exports last season after the country faced a sharp decrease in the grain production.