The buckwheat harvest in Ukraine in 2025 is 15% lower than a year earlier, which is not a problem for the domestic market, but will lead to price increases due to frenzied demand provoked by the media, said Rodion Rybchinsky, director of the Ukrainian Flour Millers Association.
“As far as I understand, this year’s buckwheat harvest is already 15% lower than last year’s. Questions about its availability should be addressed not to processors, but to farmers engaged in agribusiness,” he said at the Agro2Food Profit forum in Kyiv on Wednesday.
The expert explained that farmers themselves decide what is profitable for them to sow—sunflowers, soybeans, rapeseed— and then defend their rights to export soybeans and rapeseed to the Ministry of Economy and the State Tax Service without paying a 10% export duty, or to sow buckwheat, which yields 1.3-1.5 tons/ha, and then sell it for UAH 20,000 per ton.
Responding to a question about the reasons for the rise in buckwheat prices this year, Rybchinsky said that there were no reasons, but prices would still rise.
“Some newspaper or Telegram channel started shouting this week that buckwheat is getting more expensive. People listened and rushed to the supermarket. They see that buckwheat is selling for 25 UAH/kg, and tomorrow it will be 30 UAH/kg. They bought it all up. The warehouses of processing plants are empty. Retailers are starting to ask the authorities, ‘Where is the buckwheat? ’ And it’s with the farmers, who are waiting for prices to rise to 40 UAH/kg and are not releasing the product. They are doing this because consumers have bought up all the product at 25 UAH/kg,” explained the head of the industry association.
Rybchinsky recalled that the rush demand for buckwheat, rye, and other products occurs steadily every three to four years.
“Ukrainians do not eat buckwheat in such quantities as the media try to portray. Buckwheat is primarily needed by people with diabetes. Other consumers can do without it, because Ukraine produces more corn and wheat groats than it needs for domestic consumption,” emphasized the head of the Ukrainian Flour Millers Association, urging Ukrainians not to react to the artificially created hype.
As reported, in the 2025 season, Ukrainian farmers reduced the area under buckwheat to 69,100 hectares, compared to 90,300 hectares a year earlier. As of October 24, buckwheat has been harvested from 86% of the production areas with a yield of 14 tons/ha, yielding 83.3 thousand tons, compared to 126.9 thousand tons a year earlier.
Buckwheat groats have disappeared from the shelves of some Ukrainian stores due to the boom in demand for groats caused by the desire of the population to stock up on food supplies in the face of a full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation, while after the harvest of buckwheat in Ukraine, the supply of buckwheat groats and its cost will stabilize at the level 65-70 UAH/kg.
The corresponding forecast was published on the website of the National Academy of Agrarian Sciences of Ukraine on Monday.
According to her, the demand for buckwheat is caused by the panic of the population, which stocked up large volumes of all types of cereals during the war with the Russian Federation, while retail chains were unable to provide a corresponding increase in supply, as a result of which buckwheat temporarily disappeared from the shelves of some stores.
In addition, Ukrainians consume 3-4 kg of buckwheat per year, which is several times higher than the world average of 1.5 kg per year.
“Our harvest (2022 – IF) will provide up to 2.5 kg of buckwheat per citizen. This is not a critical situation, but we will have to wait for a new harvest. Starting from September, there will be price stability – at the level of 65-70 UAH per kilogram of buckwheat. This is if there are problems with imports. And if we provide enough imported cereals, the price of buckwheat can decrease to UAH 50 per kilogram, perhaps even less,” the NAAN website says.
According to him, in the conditions of a difficult sowing campaign during the war, Ukrainian farmers sowed enough buckwheat, and its harvest will approximately correspond to last year, perhaps by 10-15% less. However, this will be quite enough for the needs of Ukraine.
NAAN stressed that before harvesting its own harvest, Ukraine is forced to buy foreign buckwheat, which it now imports from Poland or Lithuania instead of Russian and Kazakh ones. At the same time, the price of imported cereals will be high due to expensive fuel, since it is imported to Ukraine mainly by road.
As reported, 74.9 thousand hectares have already been sown with buckwheat this season, which is 92% of the previously planned 81.6 thousand hectares.
Ukraine, at the request of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine, will receive 140 tonnes of buckwheat seeds, the vessel with the cargo was sent by the Canada-Ukraine Foundation (Canada), Ambassador of Ukraine to Canada Yulia Kovaliv wrote on Facebook on Monday.
The seeding rate of buckwheat is 80-100 kg/ha, respectively, Ukraine can sow 1,120-1,400 ha with seeds received from Canada.
According to the Ministry of Agrarian Policy, by May 12, Ukraine sowed 12,200 hectares with buckwheat, which is 14.9% of the 81,600 hectares planned for this year. Thus, thanks to assistance from Canada, Ukraine can sow 1.3-1.7% of the area planned for this crop.
The Cabinet of Ministers has imposed a ban on export of buckwheat until July 1.
During a meeting on April 2, the government approved respective order amending supplement 1 to instruction No. 1109 of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine dated December 24, 2019.
“Thus, the resolution introduces a temporary licensing and quotas for buckwheat and peeled buckwheat grain (no bran covering) export until July 1, 2020,” the Economy Ministry said in a statement on Thursday evening, April 2.
In particular, a zero quota volume was established for the goods (according to foreign economic activity codes 1008 10 00 00 and 1104 29 17 00).
The relevant amendments, according to the Economy Ministry, were made in supplement 1 to instruction No. 1109 on the quota volumes of export of goods which is subject to licensing in 2020.
According to the ministry, the ban on buckwheat export is a temporary measure necessary to protect the domestic market. The Economy Ministry said that Belarus, the Russian Federation and Kazakhstan have temporarily closed their borders for buckwheat export.
“To date the situation in the Ukrainian market is stable. The government is in dialogue with manufacturers and retailers all the time. Ukraine will negotiate with the main producing countries to lift bans in order to maintain international food security and restore normal international trade conditions,” the ministry said.
The ministry also urges Ukrainian agricultural enterprises to increase the area sown with buckwheat.
