Ukraine has improved its estimate of the area under spring grain

UkrAgroConsult

The Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food has announced the completion of the sowing campaign, with the forecast for spring grains and pulses exceeded by 4% to 5.67 million hectares.

According to the Ministry of Agrarian Policy, this is 8.5% less than last year and 25.1% less than in pre-war 2021.

Sunflower and soybean plantings amounted to 5.31 mln ha and 1.78 mln ha, respectively, which is 5.9% and 3.3% less than the March forecast. At the same time, they exceeded last year’s, in particular, by 12.9% for sunflower and 46.8% for soybeans.

It is specified that in 2023, farmers exceeded the forecasted plantings of peas and corn by 16% and 12%, respectively, allocating 139.3 thou hectares and 4.04 mln hectares for them. Last year, the company planted 6.3% more peas and 12.8% less corn.

This year’s buckwheat planting plan was exceeded by 5% to 120.7 thou hectares, while last year’s growth was 60.3%.

The area under oats is also 2% higher than expected – 150.1 thou hectares, but 5.8% lower than last year.

Farmers slightly underperformed the forecasts for spring wheat, which was planted on 280 thou hectares (98% of the plan). However, the area under it is 46.5% more than in 2022 and 59.1% more than in pre-war 2021, as winter wheat was sown much less.

The forecast for the current year for spring barley sowing was also not fulfilled, with farmers planting 821.9 thou hectares (79% of the plan), which is 13.6% lower than last year. The situation is the same with millet, under which 51.1 thou hectares are occupied, which is 85% of the plan, but it is 3.2% higher than last year.

As reported, this season winter wheat plantings amounted to 4.17 mln ha (-834 thou hectares compared to the previous season), winter barley – 536 thou ha (-255 thou ha), and rapeseed – 1.37 mln ha (+110 thou ha).

At the end of March, the Ministry of Agrarian Policy predicted that in 2023 the planted areas of grains and legumes will amount to 10.24 mln ha, down 1.4 mln ha from 2022, while the oilseeds will increase by 0.92 mln ha to 8.85 mln ha.

Tags: barley, soybean, wheat, sunseed, rapeseed, Buckwheat, oats, sown area, sowing, Ukraine, corn