December 31, 2012

Ukraine's winter grain crops in good, satisfactory condition

As of December 28, 2012, Ukraine's winter grain crops on 91.5% of the sown areas were in a good and satisfactory condition.

According to the Agrarian Policy and Food Ministry, almost 8.6% of the germinated crops, which was 670,000 hectares, were weak and thinned.

The ministry reported that winter grain crops sprouted on 7.78 million hectares, or 96% of the areas under crops. It added that grain winter crops did not germinate on 320,000 hectares.

Winter wheat germinated on 6.4 million hectares. Of the germinated crops, 91.5% were in a good and satisfactory condition, while 8.5% of the crops were weak and thinned.

By this date, 93.4% of the sprouted winter rapeseed crops, which was 960,000 hectares, were in a good and satisfactory condition, 6.6% were weak and thinned.

According to the ministry's preliminary information, Ukraine has sown winter crops on 8.1 million hectares, or 99.5% of the area planned for the 2013 harvest. In particular, winter wheat was sown on 6.7 million hectares, which was 1% up on the forecast, rye was sown on 304,000 hectares (99% of the target), and winter barley was sown on 1.1 million hectares (91%).