August 28, 2012

Ukraine's 2012 corn crop produces low yield

Ukraine started the 2012 corn harvest, collecting the first 42,000 tonnes of the commodity with a low yield.

The Agriculture ministry said in a report farms had threshed 15,000 hectares of corn and the yield totalled 2.78 tonnes per hectare compared with four tonnes at the same date in 2011.

Farms plan to harvest 4.57 million hectares of corn in 2012 against 3.54 million in 2011.

Ukraine harvested a record 22.7 million tonnes of corn last year and had planned to harvest at least 25 million this year. But hot weather this summer is likely to reduce the output to about 20 million tonnes.

The former Soviet republic has already finished its wheat and barley harvests, which totalled 16.3 million tonnes and 7.2 million respectively. In 2011 Ukraine harvested 22.3 million tonnes of wheat and 9.1 million of barley.

The government has said the grain harvest is likely to total 45 million tonnes this year due to poor weather. Ukraine harvested 56.7 million tonnes of grain in 2011.

The government also said the country had enough grain in stock to meet domestic needs and to export about 20 million tonnes in the 2012-13 season, which runs from July-June.

Farm minister Mykola Prysyazhnyuk said last week exports could total 1.2 million tonnes of grain in August, the same as in July.

According to agriculture consultancy UkrAgroConsult, Ukraine exported 677,000 tonnes of grain, mostly wheat, in the period from August 1-20.