September 9, 2015

Lower plantings for Ukraine's winter rapeseed this season

Following a hot August this year, winter rapeseed plantings in Ukraine is expected to decline "significantly", with about a third of planned cultivations completed so far, said Oleksiy Pavlenko, the country's agriculture minister.

Warm and dry weather could induce a 7.8% cut of winter grain for this year. According to Pavenko, there will be "significantly lesser winter rapeseed" as the "optimal time" for plantings had concluded.

Winter rapeseed will be harvested in the middle of 2016, Bloomberg reported. In 2014, the planting area for winter rapeseed measured 891,600 hectares.

Ukraine is attempting to boost agriculture investments in order to raise crop yields as well as improving port and infrastructure capacity. In addition, ongoing projects will help ports to increase exports by about 10 million tonnes yearly, Pavlenko said.

Ukraine aims to deliver about one million tonnes of grain a year to Bangladesh and at least three million tonnes to Iran after sanctions are abrogated, the minister added.

He also reiterated a forecast for Ukraine's grain exports in the season (beginning on July 1) at 36.8 million tonnes.