During the sowing season-2022, Ukraine sowed 3.02 million hectares of land with the main agricultural crops, which is 20.1% of the 14.4 million hectares planned for the current season, the data on which were adjusted upward by 7.1% the day before (from 13.44 million hectares previously announced), the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food said on Friday.
According to data published on its website, over the past week from April 15 to April 21, the area under crops increased by 56%, from 1.94 million hectares to 3.02 million hectares.
It is clarified that by now the total area sown with spring barley is 802.2 thousand hectares (+59 thousand hectares per week), sunflower – 896 thousand hectares (+462.3 thousand hectares), spring wheat – 164.4 thousand hectares (+18 thousand hectares), peas – 107.2 thousand hectares (+6.7 thousand hectares), oats – 127 thousand hectares (+15.4 thousand hectares).
In addition, the sown area under potatoes is 366.2 thousand hectares (+236.9 thousand hectares), sugar beet – 155.6 thousand hectares (+45.3 thousand hectares), soybeans – 62 thousand hectares ( +41.1 thousand hectares), spring rapeseed – 16.4 thousand hectares (+4.8 thousand hectares), millet – 4.8 thousand hectares (+2 thousand hectares), buckwheat – 1 thousand hectares (+0.4 thousand ha).
According to the Ministry of Agrarian Policy, Vinnitsa, Volyn, Transcarpathian, Kirovograd, Odessa, Poltava, Rivne, Ternopil and Khmelnytsky regions have completely completed the sowing of spring crops of the early group: wheat, barley and oats. Almost 70% of the projected areas have already been sown with these crops.
Also in 2021, winter crops were sown for the 2022 harvest on a total area of 7.7 million hectares, including 6.5 million hectares of winter wheat, 1 million hectares of barley and 0.16 million hectares of rye.
At the moment, agricultural enterprises have completed the first feeding of winter crops with nitrogen mineral fertilizers.
As reported, due to the military aggression of the Russian Federation in Ukraine this season, a reduction in the acreage of high-margin crops (sunflower and corn) is expected while increasing the acreage of crops that are easier to produce, but important in terms of food security – peas, barley and oats.
Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal said on April 20 that Ukraine will sow approximately 14.2 million hectares of agricultural land this season, which is 80% of last year’s figure of 16.9 million hectares.
Earlier, the Ministry of Agrarian Policy estimated the sown area under spring crops in 2022 at 13.44 million hectares compared to 16.92 million hectares in 2021.
Rostislav Shurma, Deputy Head of the President’s Office, called Ukraine’s goal in 2022 to harvest at least 70% of last year’s volumes.
Indonesia will ban the export of palm oil from April 28 amid a shortage of this product in the country, the Nikkei newspaper reports.
Indonesian President Joko Widodo said on Friday that the ban is in place indefinitely.
Such a decision, according to him, was made in order to “ensure a sufficient and affordable supply of edible vegetable oil in the country.”
Indonesia is the world’s largest producer and exporter of palm oil. The previous ban on the export of this product from the country was introduced at the end of January and lifted in March. The imposition of the ban sent palm oil prices skyrocketing to record highs.
A significant rise in prices was noted at the end of last year, and already this year the situation was aggravated by the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, which, according to experts, could limit the supply of vegetable oils on the world market.
Despite the fact that the supply of palm oil in Indonesia, which fell sharply at the beginning of the year, has now increased, prices remain high, which pushes up inflation in the country.
July palm oil futures on the Malaysian derivatives exchange rose 1.1% on Friday to 6,384 ringgits ($1,483.62) per ton.
IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi will lead a team of experts who will visit the Chernobyl nuclear power plant next week, according to a statement posted on the organization’s website on Friday.
“International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi will lead an expert mission to Ukraine’s Chernobyl nuclear power plant (NPP) next week to step up assistance to prevent the danger of a nuclear accident during the current conflict in the country,” the statement said.
It is noted that a group of IAEA employees will arrive in Chernobyl on April 26 to deliver the necessary equipment and conduct radiological and other surveys of the area.
In March, Grossi visited the South Ukrainian NPP, where he discussed IAEA assistance to Ukraine with the Minister of Energy of Ukraine German Galushchenko, the head of the nuclear regulator of Ukraine Oleg Korikov, the head of the State Enterprise NNEGC Energoatom Petr Kotin and the general director of the South Ukrainian NPP Igor Polovich. Then he noted, that the personal presence of IAEA specialists on the ground would help prevent the risk of a nuclear accident in the face of Russian military aggression, It was noted that such an accident could lead to serious consequences in the field of health and the environment both in Ukraine and abroad.
At a meeting with Secretary-General of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Mathias Cormann, Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal welcomed the intention of the OECD to open a regional office in Kyiv.
“I informed the OECD Secretary-General about the creation in Ukraine of a plan and a fund for the restoration of our state. We strive to change the country and the economic model, based on the best world standards. Our goal is based on the principles promoted by the Ukrainian people: a European future, a transparent state and an open economy,” Shmyhal said on his Telegram channel following the meeting.
The prime minister said it is important for Ukraine to use the best practices of the OECD and implement them in the near future.
“I welcomed the intention to open a regional office of the OECD in Kyiv, this is an excellent opportunity to strengthen and accelerate our cooperation,” Shmyhal said.
Shmyhal also said the ‘green’ economy is the basic principle of the new economic model of Ukraine.
“Russia has destroyed and continues to destroy our infrastructure. There is no point in returning to the old models, so we intend to restore it according to modern principles and the latest technologies,” he said.
In addition, the prime minister said that Ukraine intends to make corporatization even more efficient, and in this matter counts on active assistance from the OECD.
Japan will increase financial assistance to Ukraine from $100 million to $300 million, Ukrainian Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko said after a meeting with Japanese Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki on Friday.
“We already had the decision of the Japanese government to provide financial assistance to Ukraine – $100 million. During a personal meeting, the Japanese finance minister supported our request to increase funding to $300 million,” Marchenko wrote on Facebook after the meeting.
He also met with Italian Finance Minister Daniele Franco and discussed with him a new loan program, the details of which Marchenko has not yet disclosed.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen called an additional $500 million financial aid package to Ukraine, previously announced by U.S. President Joe Biden, “only the beginning,” the Associated Press said.
“We plan to deploy this direct aid to Ukraine as soon as possible, to be used on the most urgent need. This is only the beginning of what Ukraine will need to rebuild,” she said.
Thus, this package will be provided in addition to the $500 million that Biden announced in March, the agency notes.
Speaking of sanctions against Russia, she noted that the U.S. continues to “tighten the vise of our economic pressure campaign.”
“Europe clearly needs to reduce its dependence on Russia in respect to energy. But we need to be careful,” Yellen said.
Yellen met with Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal and Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko on Thursday.
Earlier, Yellen and several other officials, including European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde, left the room during the speech of Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov at the G20 meeting in Washington. So did U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell and Canadian Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland.
Yellen stated that Russia should be excluded from the G20 and that she intended to boycott events where Russian officials would speak.
