Ukraine accelerates harvesting, gathers 75% of early crops

MOSCOW. July 30 (Interfax) - Ukrainian farmers have already harvested 75% of early crops, production of which is expected to include 27 million tonnes of grains and about 4 million tonnes of rapeseed this year, Ukrainian media reported, citing acting Agrarian Policy and Food Minister Taras Vysotsky.

"About 9 million-10 million tonnes from this group, meaning about a third, traditionally go to consumption on the domestic market. Therefore, 60-65% of this produce that is now being harvested will be exported," Vysotsky said in an interview posted on his ministry's Telegram channel.

He also said that the harvest is being gathered far faster this year. "As of today [July 29], about 20 million tonnes of early grains have been harvested. On the same date last year, it was 11 million tonnes. The pace is significantly faster," Vysotsky said.

He said the weather factor has been mixed this year. In the southwest there was a lack of precipitation and drought, which will lead to some harvest losses, but in the north, west and a number of central regions there was sufficient precipitation and crop yields are high. Consequently, the average figure nationwide will be as forecast.

"Thanks to the ability to actively export by sea, we essentially don't have excess carryover reserves from previous years. Surpluses were exported. The plan for gathering the harvest is in line with the volume of elevator capacity inside the country," Vysotsky said.

He also said that domestic wheat consumption in Ukraine has dropped to a little over 6 million tonnes per year from 8 million tonnes. The country is expected to produce 21 million tonnes of wheat in 2024, 15 million tonnes of which it is expected to export and the rest use domestically.

The ministry forecast in April that gross grain and oil crop production in Ukraine will total 74 million tonnes in 2024, including about 52.4 million tonnes of grains and 21.7 million tonnes of oil crops.

The forecast projects that farmers will harvest 19.2 million tonnes of wheat, 4.9 million tonnes of barley and 26.7 million tonnes of corn in 2024, compared to respectively 22.2 million tonnes, 5.7 million tonnes and 30.5 million tonnes last year. Soybean production is expected to increase to 5.2 million tonnes this year from 4.7 million tonnes in 2023, while the sunflower and rapeseed harvests are expected to drop to 12.4 million tonnes from 12.9 million tonnes and to 4.1 million tonnes from 4.7 million tonnes, respectively.

The gross harvest totalled about 82 million tonnes in 2023, including over 60 million tonnes of grains and about 22 million tonnes of oil crops.