According to the results of the spring sowing season 2023 in Ukraine, farmers increased the areas under grain crops, particularly corn, and reduced the areas under oilseeds, particularly sunflower, and will get 61.4 million tons of gross crop of these crops, according to the website of the Ukrainian Club of Agrarian Business (UCAB) on Tuesday.
It is specified that such changes are fixed compared to the previous UCAB forecast, but not to the previous year. The forecast also raised yield expectations for winter crops.
UCAB estimates that the 2023 crop area will be 10.1 million hectares (4.4 million hectares of wheat, 3.8 million hectares of corn and 1.4 million hectares of barley). As a result, it is expected to harvest 42.5 million tons of cereals, of which 16.3 million tons of wheat, 21.1 million tons of corn and 4.2 million tons of barley.
Experts estimate the area under oilseeds at 8.9 million hectares, including 5.7 million hectares of sunflower, 2 million hectares of soybeans and 1.2 million hectares of rape. It is noted that Ukraine can expect to get the gross yield of oilseeds at 18.9 million tons, including 12.2 million tons of sunflower, 3.8 million tons of soybeans and 2.9 million tons of rapeseed.
“According to preliminary estimates, this harvest will fully meet domestic demand and get the export potential at 43 million tons of grains and oilseeds,” forecasts UCAB.
Analysts attributed the lion’s share of last year’s corn harvest, which was in high demand, to the positive factors of the current season. The expansion of area under this crop will contribute to the world tendency to reduce prices for fertilizers, which will be felt in Ukraine as well and this will provide maize with their sufficient quantity.
They advised to remember that the introduction of corn production has certain technological difficulties for farmers: the current high saturation with oil-bearing crops, the possible further disease pressure, increased load on combines because of the overlap of harvest periods of other crops, the lack of quality seeds of other crops, etc.
The UCAB also pointed out that since the beginning of the war, the main consumers of oilseeds were EU countries, primarily neighboring countries. However, because of the temporary restrictions on imports of some grains by them, further increase of areas sown with oil-bearing crops looks risky.
According to analysts, Ukraine managed to survive the Russian energy terror and adapt to the new realities, gives hope to the ability of farmers to withstand a possible repetition of the situation.
Over the past week, farmers sowed 210.3 thou hectares of grains and legumes compared to 66.6 thou hectares a week earlier, with Ternopil region leading the way with 47.2 thou hectares, the Ministry of Agrarian Policy reported on Friday.
According to its data, as of March 23, the sowing campaign is already underway in 18 regions of Ukraine, while a week ago it was in 10.
It is noted that since the beginning of this campaign, all categories of farms have sown 293 thousand hectares of grain and leguminous crops, of which 76.1 thousand hectares (26 thousand hectares a week earlier) – spring wheat, 168.1 thousand hectares (44.2 thousand hectares) – spring barley, 35.3 thousand hectares (12 thousand hectares) – peas and 14.2 thousand (0.5 thousand hectares) – oats.
The Ministry clarified that since the beginning of the sowing campaign, farmers in Ternopil region have planted the largest amount of grain and legumes – 67.6 thousand hectares.
Agrarians in Vinnytsia, Volyn, Rivne, Khmelnytsky and Cherkasy regions have started sowing sugar beet, while farmers in Odesa region have started sowing sunflower, the ministry added.
As reported, as of March 25 last year, 150 thousand hectares of agricultural areas were sown in 11 regions, and in 2021, as of the same date, 106 thousand hectares were sown.
As of March 21, 2023, the Ministry of Agrarian Policy forecasted the area under grain and leguminous crops for the 2023 harvest in the territory controlled by Ukraine at 10.24 mln ha, which is 1.41 mln ha or 12.1% less than in 2022.
According to the data and forecasts of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy, winter wheat plantings amounted to 4166 thou hectares (-834 thou hectares y-o-y), winter barley – 536 thou hectares (-255 thou hectares).
The agency expects spring wheat to be planted on 285 thou hectares (+67 thou hectares), spring barley – on 1041 thou hectares (+111 thou hectares), corn – on 3618 thou hectares (-451 thou hectares).
Ukraine exported in January “grain corridor” by 25% less agricultural products than in December due to deliberate actions of Russian inspectors to delay ships in the Bosphorus, the Administration of Sea Ports of Ukraine (AMPU) reported on Sunday.
According to the agency, in January the ports of “Big Odessa” processed 77 ships and sent 3 million tons of agricultural products to Africa, Asia and Europe, while in December the figure was 97 ships and 3.7 million tons of agricultural products, respectively.
At the same time, the Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine noted that the critically low rate of ships’ departure from the ports (2.5 ships per day) continues to remain. For comparison, in October this indicator was 5.7.
“In January, the ports worked only at 30-40% of capacity due to a shortage of the fleet to load. Three ships a day at the proposed nine are inspected in the Bosphorus and receive permission to move to Ukrainian ports for food,” – added in the ministry.
According to the ministry, the SKC plans to conduct 10 inspections a day, but Russian inspectors successfully complete only half of them.
“In January, 204 inspections were conducted, of which 173 were successful, another 31 inspections were not completed because Russian inspectors ended their workday prematurely and unilaterally at 3 p.m. 30 minutes (work time is regulated till 5:30 pm) or due to claims of documents not having been checked by the SKZ,” added the Ministry of Infrastructure.
In addition, the registration of vessels for participation in the initiative is also delayed. With more than 80 ships declared, the representatives of the aggressor country register 2-3 ships a day without any explanation. As of February 4, 120 vessels are waiting for inspection in Turkish territorial waters (98 – entering the ports for loading, 22 – with the agricultural products for the exit). The vast majority of them are waiting several weeks.
In total, for six months of operation of the “grain corridor” ports of Greater Odessa has sent 691 ships with 19.7 million tons of foodstuffs: the port of Chernomorsk – 285 ships-7.3 million tons, port “Odessa” – 215 ships-5.2 million tons and port “Pivdenny” – 191 ships with 6.6 million tons of food.
“The world received 19.7 million tons of food, and should receive more than 30 million tons, subject to the stable functioning of the corridor,” the department added.
As reported, in Istanbul on July 22 with the participation of the UN, Ukraine, Turkey and Russia signed two documents on the creation of a corridor for 120 days for the export of grain from the three Ukrainian ports – “Chernomorsk”, “Odessa” and “Pivdenniy”. After the end of its validity period, the agreement was extended for another 120 days, starting from November 19, 2022.
Ukraine since the beginning of 2022/2023 marketing year (July-June) and until January 20, 2012 exported 25.14 million tons of cereals, including 14.22 million tons of corn (56.6% of total shipments), 9.1 million tons of wheat (36.1%) and 1.73 million tons of barley (6.8%).
As reported on the website of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food on Friday, the rate of grain exports since the beginning of the current MY is 30.34% lower than the same period of the previous MY, when from July 1, 2021 to January 20, 2022, 36.08 million tons were delivered abroad. In this case, the previous maximum rate of exports was achieved on January 9, 2023, when the lag from last year’s values was the lowest for the entire MY 29.61%.
According to the Ministry, from the beginning of 2022/2023 MY to January 20 this year, Ukraine exported 9.1 million tons of wheat (1.82 times less compared to the same period last year), 1.73 million tons of barley (3.11 times less) and 12.5 thousand tons of rye (12 times less). At the same time, exports of corn exceeded last year’s volume: 14.22 million tons were exported, which is 3.6% more than it was in 2021/2022 MY on the same date, while 76.5 thousand tons of flour (+23.1%).
It is specified that since the beginning of January, Ukraine exported 2.39 million tons of grain, including 1.59 million tons of corn, 671 thousand tons of wheat, 108 thousand tons of barley and 7.5 thousand tons of flour.
As follows from the Ministry data, during the period of January 9-20, an average of 140 thousand tons of cereals per day were supplied to the foreign markets, whereas during the preceding period of January 2-9, an average of 121.7 thousand tons per day were supplied to the foreign markets, during December 21 – January 2, an average of 196.4 thousand tons per day, during December 14-21 – 134.3 thousand tons per day and during December 2-14 – 148.6 thousand tons per day. Thus, the average daily rate of exports during the reporting period January 9-20 has increased by 15% compared to the previous period January 2-9.
As reported, Ukraine in 2021/2022 MY exported 48.51 million tons of grain and leguminous crops, which is 8.4% higher than in the previous MY, despite the full-scale invasion of Russia and the difficulties with the export of agricultural products due to the blockade of Ukrainian seaports. 18.74 million tons of wheat (12.6% more than in 2020/2021MY), 23.54 million tons of corn (+1.9%), 5.75 million tons of barley (+35.9%), 70.9 thousand tons of flour (-44.1%) were supplied to foreign markets.
Ukraine in 2020/2021 MY exported 44.72 million tons of grain and leguminous crops: 16.64 million tons of wheat, 23.08 million tons of corn, 4.23 million tons of barley, 126.9 thousand tons of flour and 18.4 thousand tons of rye.
In 2019/2020, Ukraine exported 56.72 million tons of grain and leguminous crops.
Agroholding Continental Farmers Group has completed the harvest of winter barley, wheat and rapeseed from a total area of 86.2 thousand hectares, a total of 446 thousand tons of crops have been harvested, follows from its press release on Thursday.
It is specified that the yield indicators for this season exceeded the planned ones. The average yield of barley was 6.37 tons/ha, wheat – 6.23 tons/ha, rapeseed – 3.56 tons/ha.
“We have crossed the equator of this year’s harvest – the first wave has been completed with a good result. We are satisfied with the yield for all crops, because there were certain risks due to the dry spring. We ship the harvested products to our own elevators, which we prepared earlier. Given the favorable weather, the other day we started digging potatoes,” the agricultural holding quotes its COO Vitaliy Stavnichuk.
In addition, Continental has begun sowing winter crops for the 2023 harvest – sowing of rapeseed on an area of 35.2 thousand hectares is nearing completion. It is also planned to sow winter wheat on 42.3 thousand hectares, and barley on 16.1 thousand hectares.
“Due to the weather conditions during this sowing period, maximum emphasis is placed on moisture conservation. Production technologies are used depending on the type of seeders involved in the work. This is either classic cultivation with Horsch Tiger cultivators and sowing with Horsch Pronto seeders, or conditional direct sowing, carried out immediately after harvesting wheat and barley with Horsch Focus and Claydon Hybrid 6T seeders,” the agricultural holding said in a press release.
“Continental Farmers Group” grows potato chips, seed and food varieties in Lviv and Ternopil regions. The total area under potatoes in 2020 amounted to 1.6 thousand hectares, in 2021 – 1.8 thousand hectares, with a total land bank of the group of companies of 195 thousand hectares in the western regions of Ukraine.
Agroholding Mriya and CFG, united under the name Continental Farmers Group, have been operating as a single business since November 2018, when Mriya entered into a deal with international investor Salic UK to sell assets.
Salic was founded in 2012. Its sole shareholder is the State Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia. Invests in the production of agricultural and livestock products.
Since the beginning of 2021/22 (July-June) and as of February 21, Ukraine has exported 42.54 million tonnes of grain and leguminous crops, which is 37.3% higher than the figures for the same date of the previous year.
According to the Information and Analytical Portal of the Agribusiness Complex of Ukraine, 17.85 million tonnes of wheat have been exported to date (34.0% more compared to the same date in 2020/21). Taking into account the restriction on its export at the level of 25.3 million tonnes, introduced on October 19, 2021 by the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food, Ukrainian exporters can supply another 7.45 million tonnes of wheat to foreign markets (29.5% of the limit).
Ukraine for the specified period exported 5.57 million tonnes of barley (40.8% more), 18.68 million tonnes of corn (41.9% more) and 66,300 tonnes of flour (27.2% less).
As of this date, 158,700 tonnes of rye were also exported, which is 94 times higher than the figure for the previous year.
