Ukraine. Oilseed crops are becoming a priority for agrarians

UkrAgroConsult

Sown areas in Ukraine will be reoriented to oilseed crops. Taras Vysotskyi, the First Deputy Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine, stated this on TV, according to a statement from the Ministry of Agrarian Policy.

“Oilseed crops are becoming a priority for agrarians. This is already noticeable on the example of winter rapeseed, the area of which was sown compared to the previous year did not decrease. We also expect an increase in sunflower and soybean acreage. Although oil crops have a lower yield, give a lower gross harvest in weight, but their cost is much higher compared to grain – by 2-2.5 times. Therefore, if we are talking about the physical harvest, we predict that the decrease will be at the level of 10-15%. This is our assessment at the moment,” said Taras Vysotskyi.

He believes that the surplus of oilseed crops does not threaten the country, since Ukraine is export-oriented in both oilseed and grain crops.

“The international market is ready to consume larger volumes of oilseed crops from Ukraine. Therefore, what will be additionally grown will be exported. Moreover, the logistics of oilseeds is more profitable, since a unit of tons of oilseeds has a higher cost, and transportation costs like 1t of grains. Because of this, farmers are adjusting to work not at a loss and not at zero, but with a certain profitability,” Taras Vysotsky emphasized.

According to him, in fact, the main unprofitability in agriculture was observed in spring and summer, before the opening of the “grain initiative”. After all, at that time there was limited logistics and, accordingly, a low price on the domestic market due to the increase in the cost of transportation.

“With the opening of the “grain initiative” on grain crops, we are already seeing profitability. Volumes are growing, the cost of logistics is falling, so we predict positive results in the current year not only for oilseeds, but also for grain crops, in particular winter wheat,” the first deputy minister summarized.

Tags: Ukraine, sunflower, soybean, rapeseed, sown area