Wheat harvest in Ukraine will decrease due to bad weather

The forecasted wheat harvest in Ukraine this season will be enough for the needs of the domestic market, but the harvest is taking place with a delay. This was stated by First Deputy Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food Taras Vysotsky in an interview with Ukrinform.

“This year we have a number of atypical force majeure weather circumstances, which were present both in the spring and in certain regions in the summer. We see that in fact the vegetation and harvest are taking place with such a delay from the average by 2-3 weeks. As of today, we actually only have the first start of the harvest, while last year there was already a fairly active phase during these days,” Vysotsky said.

According to him, last year’s wheat production was estimated at 22 million tons. This year, the preliminary forecast is from 20 million to 22 million tons.

Vysotsky noted that this is not a threatening moment for domestic food security, since Ukrainian domestic wheat consumption does not exceed 6 million tons.

Vysotsky also noted that, in addition to extreme weather, the fields are being “pressured” by hostilities.

“We are talking about hostilities, primarily in those regions and oblasts where these hostilities are ongoing. Of course, it is difficult to work directly in the territories of hostilities, in some places there are crop losses, including due to fires. As of today, it is difficult to assess the final impact from the point of view of what area cannot or will not be harvested due to hostilities,” Vysotsky stated.

Tags: Ukraine, wheat, crop forecast