As of September 19, farmers harvested 29.77 million tons of early grain and leguminous crops from 7.09 million hectares, which is 62% of the area sown with these crops, according to the Ministry of Economy, Environment, and Agriculture on its website.
Last year, as of September 20, 31.90 million tons of grain were harvested from 7.53 million hectares, meaning that the current figures are 6.7% and 5.9% lower, respectively, mainly due to the later start of the corn harvest.
As noted by the Ministry of Economy, 388,700 tons have now been harvested from 90,300 hectares, while last year at around this date, 2.40 million tons were harvested from 514,500 hectares.
As for wheat, its harvest is slightly higher than last year’s – 22.48 million tons from 5.02 million hectares compared to 22.30 million tons from 4.9 million hectares, while barley is slightly lower – 5.33 million tons from 1.35 million hectares compared to 5.50 million tons from 1.41 million hectares.
This year’s pea harvest is significantly higher – 626,600 tons from 266,000 hectares compared to 465,300 tons from 212,200 hectares last year, while buckwheat and millet are still significantly lower – 57,100 tons versus 99,400 tons and 45,400 tons versus 132,000 tons, respectively.
The harvest of other cereals and legumes this year reached 844,300 hectares as of September 19, compared to 1,000,000 tons as of September 20 last year.
It is noted that among the leaders, in particular, the Odessa region harvested 3.68 million tons from an area of 1.09 million hectares, the Vinnytsia region with 2.41 million tons from 434,400 hectares, the Kirovograd region with 2.21 million tons from 538,400 hectares, and the Khmelnytskyi region with 2.13 million tons from 306,700 hectares.
As for oilseeds, the rapeseed harvest is only slightly less than last year’s – 3.30 million tons compared to 3.4 million tons from the same area of 1.27 million hectares.
However, the harvest of soybeans and sunflowers is still ongoing, and there is a significant lag: 944,900 tons of soybeans have been harvested from 483,700 hectares, compared to 2.6 million tons from 1.3 million hectares on a similar date last year, while 2.41 million tons of sunflowers have been harvested from 1.37 million hectares, compared to 4.90 million tons from 2.4 million hectares.
In addition, sugar beet harvesting is also lagging behind: 632,500 tons have been harvested from an area of 12,700 hectares, compared to 1.7 million tons on the same date last year.
According to current data, the yields of wheat, barley, peas, rapeseed, and soybeans are roughly the same as last year, while corn and sunflower yields are lower so far, at 4.3 tons/ha versus 4.7 tons/ha and 1.8 tons/ha versus 2 tons/ha, respectively.
As reported, in its Inflation Report published at the end of July, the National Bank of Ukraine lowered its forecast for this year’s grain harvest from 61.7 million tons to 57.9 million tons, and for oilseeds from 22 million tons to 21 million tons.
The NBU recalled that last year, the grain harvest in Ukraine fell to 56.2 million tons from 59.8 million tons in 2023, while oilseeds fell from 21.7 million tons to 20 million tons.
According to forecasts by Deputy Minister of Economy Taras Vysotsky, this year’s grain harvest will be about 56 million tons, the same as last year.
