Ukraine had a bumper crop of grain last year / Photo from UNIAN
Ukraine's Agrarian Policy and Food Ministry gives upbeat harvest forecasts for this year, announcing a grain yield of 60 million tonnes, despite pessimistic projections by international experts.
The Agrarian Ministry predicts that a gross grain harvest in 2015 could total 60 million tonnes, while grain exports in the next marketing year (July 2015 through June 2016 MY) could reach 34-37 million tonnes, the ministry’s press service reported with reference to Agrarian Minister Oleksiy Pavlenko.
"In a new grain season, the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine gives upbeat forecasts for this year despite pessimistic projections by international experts. The grain harvest is expected at about 60 million tonnes. Given a stable domestic consumption at 27 million tonnes and high competition in the world market, exports can amount to 34-37 million tonnes, according to preliminary estimates," the ministry’s press service said quoting Pavlenko.
The minister noted that the achievement of targets would help raise the Ukrainian share in the world wheat market to 8%, and that of corn up to 15%.
Last marketing year, Ukraine set a record in grain exports, having shipped 34.6 million tonnes, the minister said. At the same time, the country has sufficient grain volumes to guarantee food security even amid the crisis, Pavlenko said. In particular, the ending stocks of grain available now amount to 11 million tonnes. This includes 4.9 million tonnes of wheat (1.8 million tonnes of food wheat) and about 5 million tonnes of corn.
As UNIAN reported earlier with reference to the Ukrainian State Statistics Service, Ukraine harvested 63.8 million tonnes of grain and leguminous crops in 2014, which was 2.4% more than in 2013 and a record high volume for the country. The figures do not include statistics from temporarily Russian-occupied Crimea.