Expert forecasts wheat harvest in Ukraine to exceed 27 million tonnes in 2021

Expert consultant, Candidate of Economic Sciences, Associate Professor with the Department of Public Administration at Sumy National Agrarian University Oleksiy Maslak says given the forecasts for the average yield of winter wheat at 4.1 tonnes per hectare (ha), wheat production in 2021 may exceed 27 million tonnes.

That is according to AgroTimes, referring to the Ukrainian Farmer magazine on April 1.

Read alsoGrain, flour exports down as of March 26The area under wheat in Ukraine accounts for almost a quarter of all sown areas and over 40% of cereal crops. At the same time, the share of area under winter crops in the structure of crops and gross wheat production is 98%, the expert says.

The major sown areas under wheat are concentrated in Ukraine's central regions, namely in Zaporizhia, Odesa, Kharkiv, and Dnipropetrovsk regions.

"In total, last year, 25.3 million tonnes of this grain crop was harvested from 6.5 million ha with an average yield of 3.88 tonnes per ha (including 24.6 million tonnes of winter wheat from 6.3 million ha, at the same productivity)," the expert added.

The area under winter wheat for the 2021 harvest exceeded 6.7 million ha, which is 4.9% up from the figure reported in 2020.

According to the Ukrainian Hydrometeorological Center, winter crops have overwintered satisfactory. No significant soil liquefaction of winter crops was detected. Therefore, now there is no threat of winter crops losses.

"Therefore, taking into account the forecasts for the average yield of winter wheat at 4.1 tonnes per ha, the production of this crop will exceed 27 million tonnes, which will meet domestic demand for this type of grain," Maslak summed up.

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