September 19, 2008

Europe poised for bumper harvests this year

Russia and the Ukraine are both poised for a bumper cereal harvest this year, according to a United Nations food agency official.

He explained that rising food prices have led to rapid expansion of agricultural acreage in the two countries, pushing farmland planted to wheat from 31.2 million hectares to 33.8 million hectares. In Russia alone, harvested area for wheat, coarse grains and rice is forecasted at nearly 46 million hectares for the 2008 harvest, up 2.6 million hectares from 2007.

The United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization has said that as much as 13 million hectares of unused farmland are still idle in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet republics.