Ukraine exceeded the sowing plan for grain

Ukraine’s farmers are finishing the sowing season. Last week, 14 thou hectares were sown with grains and pulses, compared to 133.3 thou hectares the previous week and 193.5 thou hectares the week before. This is evidenced by the data of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food. Thus, as of June 15, the area under spring grains and pulses reached 5.618 mln ha, which is 3% higher than forecasted in March.

At the same time, the planted areas are 9.3% less than last year: as of June 9, 2022, according to the then reports of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy, they amounted to 6196.6 mln ha. The lag is mainly due to the most popular crops – corn and spring barley, the planted areas of which are 13.5% and 14.9% less than last year, respectively, and amount to 4.014 thou hectares and 810.0 thou hectares.

At the same time, corn plantings are already 11% higher than the Ministry of Agrarian Policy’s forecast of 3.618 mln ha, while barley planted on 78% of the expected 1.041 mln ha.

Millet plantings exceeded last year’s figures, with 49.2 thou hectares planted, but this is 82% of the area expected this year.

At the same time, the area under other crops is already higher than a year ago. This applies to spring wheat – 271.1 thou hectares (up 41.9%), peas – 138.5 thou hectares (up 5.7%), buckwheat – 119.7 thou hectares (up 59%).

According to the Ministry of Agrarian Policy, farmers in 14 regions have completed sowing of spring crops: Vinnytsia, Zakarpattia, Ivano-Frankivsk, Kirovohrad, Lviv, Odesa, Poltava, Rivne, Sumy, Ternopil, Khmelnytsky, Cherkasy, Chernihiv, and Chernivtsi regions.

Compared to the pre-war year of 2021, the plantings of spring grains and pulses are down 24.7%, sunflower – 17.4%, sugar beet – 6.2%, while soybeans are up 27.6%.

Sugar beet sowing has been completed, with 213.1 thou hectares planted, which is 97% of the plan. The areas under sunflower and soybeans lag behind the targets by 94% and 96%, respectively, and amount to 5283.8 and 1773.5 thou hectares.

As a reminder, the U.S. has improved its forecast for the harvest and export of Ukrainian wheat and corn. The production figures were increased to 17.5 mln tons and 24.5 mln tons respectively.

Tags: Ukraine, sowing