Ukraine could see second-highest grain crops in history this year

The Ukraine Grain Association in its September report slightly lowered the forecast for the country's gross grain and oilseeds harvest in 2020/2021 MY compared the projection released in August.

Even despite the slide, this year's performance could be second only to last year's absolute record, while the same also applies to export volumes, UGA wrote on its website.

The forecast has been lowered from 96.7 to 95.6 million tonnes, and exports – from 58.4 to 56.3 million tonnes, the report reads.

The decrease in the gross harvest forecast was due to some losses in the corn crop caused by unfavorable weather conditions in the south and some central regions of the country. However, the affected regions have a relatively small share in the total area of ​​corn crops and gross yield.

Read alsoUkraine predicts smaller yield of grain over maize harvest lossesDry weather had little effect on the condition of corn in the country's northern and western regions, which provides the lion's share of the gross harvest.

Therefore, this year, UGA expects 35.3 million tonnes of corn to be harvested, which is approximately equal to last year's figure.

In addition, this year May's rains allowed for a good harvest of wheat at 26.6 million tonnes and barley – at 8.3 million tonnes, which is more than was expected in spring.

Agriculture in Ukraine: other news

• Ukraine has already exported over 7 mln tonnes of grain since the start of the new MY. In particular, 4.4 million tonnes of wheat was exported, exports of maize totaled 570,000 tonnes, and those of rye stood at 1.2 million tonnes.
• Ukrainian farmers have accelerated grain harvesting, having almost halved the backlog in the harvesting campaign observed in early August.
• In its official outlook, the Ministry for Development of Economy, Trade, and Agriculture earlier said this year's grain harvest would not exceed 90 million tonnes.