You're reading: Ukraine headed for record grain harvest in decade

Ukrainian farmers have as of July 29 harvested nearly 27 million tons of grain representing a 21 percent year-on-year increase on 9 million hectares of land, Kyiv-based investment bank Dragon Capital said in a note to investors. The figures imply an average yield of 2.95 tons per hectare, or a 22 percent rise over the same period last year. 

Dragon
Capital reported that the volume included 19.6 million tons of wheat, 6.2
million tons of barley and 2.1 million tons of rapeseed.

The
Agriculture Ministry forecasts that 57-59 million tons of grain will be
harvested this year, up 22-26 percent over last year, and the highest volume in
a decade, Dragon Capital said.

“We are currently more
conservative on the 2013 harvest outlook in view of the very dry weather currently
being observed in central and southern Ukraine, expecting production of 55.1 million
tons (+26% y-o-y). At the same time, we think grain exports in the 2013/14 marketing
year could hit 28.6 million tons (+19% y-o-y), above the Agriculture Ministry’s
forecast, including 17.7 million tons of corn (+20% y-o-y), 8.2 million tons of
wheat (+20% y-o-y) and 2.7 million tons of barley (+15% y-o-y),” said Dragon.

Kyiv Post editor Mark
Rachkevych can be reached at [email protected].