The “Agrotrade” Group has begun the 2026 harvest, during which early grain and oilseed crops will be harvested this year on an area of over 20,000 hectares, the company’s press service reported.
“We have mobilized a sufficient number of machines, including 25 combine harvesters and a large number of trucks for transporting grain, to carry out the harvest without delays, since after the harvest is complete, we will begin planting winter rapeseed, followed by wheat. Our main task is to harvest the crop—which the team has been working on all year—in a timely and high-quality manner,” the press service quoted Ivan Kryuchkov, director of the group’s agro-industrial department, as saying.
According to the report, three of the company’s clusters were the first to join the harvest campaign. In the Poltava region, threshing of winter rapeseed has begun, while in the Chernihiv region, threshing of winter rapeseed and winter barley has started. The Kharkiv cluster will join the harvest once the seed winter wheat has reached the required maturity.
The company noted that this year, early crops will be harvested across four clusters. The area planted with winter rapeseed totals 8,230 hectares, winter barley—523 hectares, and winter wheat—11,500 hectares. The total area under these crops exceeds 20,000 hectares.
The Agrotrade Group is a vertically integrated holding company that cultivates over 70,000 hectares of land. It owns a network of grain elevators with a capacity of 570,000 metric tons and a seed plant based at the “Kolos” farm (Kharkiv Oblast). The founder and CEO is Vsevolod Kozhemyako.
Agrotrade, harvest, rapeseed, wheat, agricultural holding
As of July 14, Ukrainian farmers have begun harvesting early grain and legume crops in all regions of the country and have harvested 3.1 million metric tons of grain from the new harvest across 763,000 hectares, or 6% of the projected area, according to the press service of the Ministry of Economy, Environment, and Agriculture.
According to the report, barley currently accounts for the largest gross harvest—1.84 million metric tons from 417,700 hectares, with an average yield of 44.1 centners per hectare.
Wheat yields totaled 1.11 million metric tons from 280,700 hectares at a yield of 39.6 centners per hectare, while peas yielded 156,400 metric tons from 64,600 hectares at a yield of 24.2 centners per hectare.
The Odesa region leads in harvest pace, having harvested 1.001 million metric tons of grain from 238 thousand hectares. The Mykolaiv region has harvested 805.1 thousand metric tons from 227.3 thousand hectares, and the Dnipropetrovsk region has harvested 567.3 thousand metric tons from 148.2 thousand hectares.
In addition, farmers have begun harvesting winter and spring rapeseed. To date, 77,000 hectares have been threshed, yielding 149,100 metric tons with an average yield of 19.4 centners per hectare.
As previously reported, a total of approximately 11.3 million hectares were sown with winter and spring grains and legumes in Ukraine this year, while total plantings of oilseeds exceeded 20 million hectares.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) left its forecast for corn production in Ukraine for the 2026/27 marketing year unchanged at 30 million metric tons in its July WASDE report.
The forecast for Ukrainian corn exports also remained unchanged at 23 million metric tons. According to the WASDE tables, the July estimate for Ukraine for the 2026/27 marketing year indicates production of 30 million metric tons, exports of 23 million metric tons, and ending stocks of 2.06 million metric tons.
For the 2025/26 marketing year, the USDA estimates Ukraine’s corn harvest at 30.9 million metric tons and exports at 23 million metric tons. Thus, compared to the current season, the new forecast suggests a slight decline in production but maintains export potential at the same level.
In its global corn balance sheet, the USDA lowered its production forecast for the 2026/27 marketing year to 1.297 billion metric tons in July, down from 1.300 billion metric tons a month earlier. The main decline is attributed to the European Union and Kenya, while the forecast for Ukraine remained unchanged.
Global corn exports for the 2026/27 marketing year, on the other hand, were raised to 209.88 million metric tons from 207.61 million metric tons in June. The USDA also lowered its forecast for global ending corn stocks to 275.26 million metric tons, down from 281.22 million metric tons in the June report.
The WASDE summary notes that foreign corn production has been reduced due to deteriorating prospects in the EU and Kenya. For the EU, the reduction is primarily due to the heatwave in France and a lower forecast for Hungary.
The Ukrainian corn forecast remains sensitive to weather conditions in the second half of the summer. Corn is more heavily dependent on precipitation and temperatures in July and August, so the actual harvest may differ significantly from the USDA’s current estimate.
The Astarta agricultural holding has begun the harvest at its farms in Poltava Oblast and plans to harvest winter wheat from 38,000 hectares and winter rapeseed from 14,000 hectares, the company’s press service reported.
“Despite a delayed start to spring fieldwork due to unfavorable weather conditions, the harvest of early-maturing grains began at the optimal time,” the press service quoted Andriy Zagorulko, director of the holding’s Department of Crop Production, Logistics, and Mechanization, as saying.
He noted that production teams had completed all necessary preparatory work, and that the key priorities during the harvest remain harvest quality, minimizing losses, worker safety, and seamless coordination among all involved teams.
In the third ten-day period of July, enterprises in the Western region will join the harvest campaign.
“Astarta” is a vertically integrated agro-industrial holding operating in seven regions of Ukraine and is the country’s largest sugar producer. The company’s portfolio includes five sugar refineries, agricultural enterprises with a land bank of 214,000 hectares (including 129,000 hectares in Poltava Oblast, 42,000 hectares in Khmelnytskyi Oblast, and 16,000 hectares in Vinnytsia Oblast), and dairy farms with 30,000 head of cattle. The holding company also operates a soybean processing plant and a bioenergy complex in the Poltava region, as well as a network of six grain elevators. Astarta’s shares are listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange.
Astarta’s net profit for 2025 fell 4.2-fold to $19.94 million, while consolidated revenue declined by 23% to $472 million.
As of July 7, Ukrainian farmers had harvested 1.022 million metric tons of early-season grains and legumes from the new crop, according to the press service of the Ministry of Economy, Environment, and Agriculture.
“This year, due to weather conditions, the harvest began somewhat later. But farmers are working as hard as they can, and we’ve already reached the first million metric tons of grain—that’s a good result for this time of year. It was made possible by the coordinated efforts of producers and the efficient organization of fieldwork, even amid security and logistical challenges,” the press service quoted Deputy Minister Taras Vysotsky as saying.
According to the ministry, the harvest of early grain and legume crops is underway in 15 regions. Grain has already been threshed on an area of 251,400 hectares, which accounts for 3% of the projected area, with an average yield of 40.7 centners per hectare.
Farmers have already harvested 719.4 thousand metric tons of barley, 264.6 thousand metric tons of wheat, and 35.1 thousand metric tons of peas.
In the Kherson and Ivano-Frankivsk regions, the rapeseed harvest has begun, with 2.68 thousand metric tons harvested so far.
The largest volumes of grain from the new harvest were harvested by farmers in the Odesa (389 thousand metric tons) and Mykolaiv (347.2 thousand metric tons) regions.
According to the Ministry of Economy, Ukrainian farmers planted over 20 million hectares with winter and spring grains and oilseeds in 2026. Specifically, 5.88 million hectares were planted with spring grains and legumes, and 7 million hectares with industrial crops.
Ukraine exported 1.82 million metric tons of rapeseed during the 2025/2026 marketing year, compared to 3.2 million metric tons in the previous season, according to the Ukrainian Grain Association.
Germany was the main market for Ukrainian rapeseed, accounting for 876,000 metric tons. Belgium imported 453,000 metric tons, the Netherlands—247,000 metric tons, the Czech Republic—112,000 metric tons, and the United Kingdom—109,000 metric tons.
According to the UGA, the decline in rapeseed exports was due to a lower harvest and the introduction of an export duty on this crop.
