Ukraine expects to harvest 50 million tonnes of grain

Ukraine expects to harvest at least 50 million tonnes of grain in 2022 — well below the 85 million tonnes it produced the previous year but still above expectations, said Taras Vysotskyi, the first deputy minister of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine.

“Taking into consideration all circumstances and difficulties of the sowing campaign and the logistics during the wartime, we expect the harvest to be not that bad — higher than the average for the last five years,” Vysotskyi said. “At least 50 tonnes of grain, maybe more. It depends on corn harvest, the results of which we will see in October.”

Vysotskyi went on to say that Ukraine would have to export at least a portion of that grain.

“We have internal consumption less than 20 million tonnes, meaning that at least 30 million tonne of harvest will have to be exported,” he said.

Vysotskyi added, “350,000 tonnes of agricultural products were exported in March, 1,000,000 tonnes in April. Now, in June, it was 2,100,000 tonne. This means that our alternative logistics ways, excluding the Black Sea Ports, have increased.”

He also said the wheat crop will be of a food consumption quality, meaning it can be used for flower and bread making, as opposed to feed livestock.

Tags: crop forecast, Ukraine, corn, grain, barley, wheat