April 26, 2022

Ukraine has completed 20% of its spring planting for 2022

Ukraine's Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food said farmers in the country have sown 2.5 million hectares of spring crops or 20% of the expected area, but the ministry warned that areas with heavy conflict could see up to a 70% decline in sowing area, Reuters reported.

The Ukraine government has said the 2022 spring sowing area could decline 20% because of Russia's invasion, with the decrease possibly reaching up to 40% in the northern regions as they need to be de-mined.

Taras Vysotskiy, Deputy Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food, said areas with active conflict such as Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhia and Kherson could see sowing areas fall by up to 70%.

Analyst APK-Inform increased its projections for Ukraine's 2022/23 grain output and exports to 41.4 million tonnes, including about 17 million tonnes of wheat and 18.5 million tonnes of corn.

The analyst said exports might potentially increase to 33.2 million tonnes in 2022/23, up from the earlier forecast of 29.9 million tonnes.

Ukraine is the fifth biggest wheat exporter and top three exporter for corn and barley. The country's wheat production was about 32 million tonnes last year.

World grain prices have soared due to the lack of Ukrainian grain.

Jakob Kern, the World Food Programme's emergency coordinator in Ukraine, said about 20% of planted areas in Ukraine will not be harvested in July, and the spring planting area will be approximately a third lower than normal.

-      Reuters