May 22, 2012

Ukraine's 2012 corn sowing up at 4.5 million hectares

Compared with 3.5 million hectares in 2011, Ukraine has almost completed 2012 corn sowing at 4.5 million hectares, the Agriculture Ministry said on Monday (May 21).

It said in a report that 441,000 hectares of corn had replaced the area of winter grains killed by severe frosts in January-February.

It said a total of 1.3 million hectares of winter grains, mostly winter wheat, were reseeded with corn, barley and other cereals this spring.

The ministry has said an increase in the corn area could help the former Soviet republic to raise corn harvest to up to 25 million tonnes in 2012 from 22.7 million in 2011.

Analyst ProAgro said the corn harvest was likely to reach 23.5 million tonnes this year. Ukraine consumes about 10 million tonnes of corn per season.