The pace of harvesting in Ukraine due to rainy weather is significantly inferior to last year’s, especially for corn, which by November 4 was harvested on 27% of the area (1.14 million hectares), while last year on this date was thinned 61% of the area (3.3 million hectares).
“Harvesting in Ukraine is slower than last year, and the average moisture content is very high due to the long rains in September and October. Farmers hope that frosts will reduce the moisture content of corn from 22-28% to an acceptable 16-20%, so they plan to postpone harvesting until winter or spring, especially if exports from the Black Sea ports are blocked, which will lead to lower prices,” according to the website of the electronic grain exchange GrainTrade on Monday.
Besides, this season the cost of drying grain has increased two or three times as compared to last year, from 60-100 UAH/ton/percent to 160-250 UAH/ton/percent due to the rise in price of gas and diesel fuel.
The exchange also specified that agrarians of Vinnitsa and Chernovtsy regions have already finished sunflower harvesting, while in Kharkiv region only 42% of sunflower crops are threshed. Most of all 380 thousand tons of soybeans were harvested in Khmelnytsky region and most of all the sugar beets (1.9 million tons) – in Vinnitsa region. The highest yield of grain and leguminous crops – 6.22 tons / ha was obtained by farmers of Khmelnytsky region.
As it was reported, Ukrainian agrarians harvested 53.11 million tons of major crops from the total area of 15.13 million hectares on November 4, with 4.3 million tons from 2 million hectares from October 28 – November 4.
The final yield of wheat in this season amounted to 19.2 million tons from 4.7 million hectares, barley – 5.5 million tons from 1.6 million hectares, rape – 3.1 million tons from 1.96 million hectares, pea – 261 tons from 111.5 million hectares.
In addition, November 4, 9 million tons of sunflower was gathered from 4.1 million hectares, 6.4 million tons of sugar beets from 105 thousand hectares, 6.3 million tons of corn from 1.1 million hectares, 3.1 million tons of soy from 1.3 million hectares, 151 tons of buckwheat from 111 thousand hectares and 98 tons of millet from 42.6 ha.
According to the Ministry, the average yield by all crops in the current season was 40.7 c/ha, including corn – 55.4 c/ha, wheat – 41.2 c/ha, of barley – 35.1 c/ha, rape – 28.9 c/ha, soybeans – 23.9 c/ha, peas – 23.4 c/ha, millet – 23.1 c/ha, sunflower – 22.0 c/ha, buckwheat – 13.6 c/ha, sugar beets – 488 c/ha.
Agroindustrial holding “Kernel” has completed the harvesting campaign of early grains in 2022, having collected, according to the calculations of the Interfax-Ukraine agency, at least 364 thousand tons of winter wheat.
As reported on the holding’s Facebook page on Monday, the winter wheat crop was harvested from an area of more than 70,000 hectares with a yield of 5.2 tons/ha.
At the same time, it is specified that the harvesting of early grains and rapeseed was completed before the end of August, despite adverse weather conditions.
“The sowing and harvesting campaigns were complicated by the military situation and weather conditions. Due to precipitation, grain harvesting continued for almost 40 days. Prolonged rains in some regions led to a deterioration in the quality indicators of the grown grain,” explained Igor Chikin, director of the Agribusiness segment, quoted by the press agricultural holding service.
According to him, the agro-industrial group experienced major organizational difficulties in the spring during the Russian large-scale invasion, when the holding was unable to grow winter crops according to the required technology. However, subsequently Kernel managed to optimize the technology and costs, carry out top dressing and protection of crops, thanks to which it was possible to get a good harvest.
The agricultural holding specified that the yield of winter rapeseed in the current season reached 3.4 tons/ha, varying between 2.8-3.7 tons/ha.
Before the war, Kernel ranked first in the world in the production of sunflower oil (about 7% of world production) and its export (about 12%), and was also the largest producer and seller of bottled sunflower oil in Ukraine. In addition, the company was engaged in the cultivation of other agricultural products and their sale.
The largest co-owner of Kernel through Namsen Ltd. is Ukrainian businessman Andrey Verevsky with a share of 39.3%.
The agricultural holding in fiscal year 2021 (FY, July 2020 – June 2021), increased its net profit by 4.3 times compared to FY 2020 – up to $513 million, its EBITDA increased 2.1 times – up to $929 million, revenue – by 38%, to $5.65 billion.
Farmers of Bila Tserkva and Fastiv districts of Kyiv region have started harvesting grain crops this year, according to the website of Kyiv Regional Military Administration.
According to it, by July 12, some 6,800 tonnes of grain and leguminous crops have already been harvested in the region from an area of 2,420 hectares with an average yield of 28.1 centners per hectare. As for crops of winter barley, 4,600 tonnes have been threshed, peas – 2,200 tonnes.
In addition, the harvesting of winter rapeseed has begun, of which 7,200 tonnes have already been harvested with an average yield of 24 centners per hectare.
The local authorities clarified that in 2022 it is planned to harvest early cereals and legumes on a total area of 271,300 hectares, including winter and spring wheat – 203,300 hectares, barley – 50,300 hectares, rye – 10,800 hectares, oat – 2,900 ha and peas – 4,000 ha.
Harvesting of early grains has begun in Kharkiv region, the press service of the regional military administration reported with reference to the department of agro-industrial development.
“To date, the first mowing of winter barley and wheat has been made. Some 1,292 tonnes of early grain and leguminous crops have been harvested from an area of 450 hectares, or 0.1% of the harvested area (438,200 hectares)… In terms of crops threshed: winter wheat – 866 tonnes from an area of 345 hectares (0.1% of the harvested area), the average yield is 25.1 centners per ha; winter barley – 426 tonnes from an area of 106 hectares (0.1% of the harvested area), yield – 40.2 centners per hectare,” the press service of Kharkiv regional military administration told an Interfax-Ukraine correspondent.
This year, in Kharkiv region, farmers sowed 438,200 hectares with early cereals and legumes (excluding temporarily occupied territories and zones of active hostilities), of which wheat (winter and spring) – 348,900 hectares; barley (winter and spring) – 73,100 ha; rye – 1,400 hectares; oats – 2,700 hectares (54%); and peas – 12,100 hectares.
The Department of Agro-Industrial Development also noted that as of July 5, according to the recent data of the district administrations, 22,600 hectares (1.2% of the total arable land) need to be cleared or surveyed for the presence of sites contaminated with explosive objects. We are talking about farmland in Bohodukhiv (12,000 hectares); Kharkiv (2,580 ha) and Chuhuiv (8,090 d ha) districts of the region.
“On the territories of Izium, Kupiansk, partially Bohodukhiv, Kharkiv and Chuhuiv districts, hostilities continue, therefore, information about the territories that require examination for the presence of explosive objects in Kharkiv region is constantly changing and being updated,” the press service quoted the department.
Agrarians of Odessa and Mykolaiv regions harvested 92.1 thousand tons of early grain and leguminous crops on a total area of 42.2 thousand hectares by June 24, according to the website of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine on Friday. It is specified that a total of 90 thousand tons of winter barley from 41.1 thousand hectares and 2 thousand tons of winter wheat from 1.2 thousand hectares were threshed.
Accordingly, the average yield of winter barley was 21.9 c/ha, winter wheat – 17.8 c/ha.
The agency clarified that on the same date last year, the harvesting of winter crops had not yet begun.
“Despite the constant shelling, people and special equipment also work during the curfew. The necessary permission can be obtained from the district military administrations,” the Ministry of Agrarian Policy summed up in the message.
Ukraine continues to harvest grain and leguminous crops, as of September 9, the total harvest of grain and leguminous crops amounted to 45 million tonnes from a total area of 10.3 million hectares, farmers have also begun harvesting sunflower, sugar beet and soybeans, the Ministry of Agrarian policy and Food said on its website on Friday.
According to the ministry, 32.9 million tonnes of wheat were threshed, 10.94 million tonnes of barley, 2.8 million tonnes of rapeseed, and 0.57 million tonnes of peas. The highest average yield of wheat and rape is in Khmelnytsky (6.52 tonnes per ha and 3.5 tonnes per ha, respectively), barley – in Kyiv region (5.72 tonnes per ha), peas – in Volyn region (4 tonnes per ha).
The leaders in the threshing of grain and leguminous crops were Odesa region with an indicator of more than 4.12 million tonnes, as well as Kharkiv (3.55 million tonnes), Dnipropetrovsk (3.38 million tonnes), Mykolaiv (3.25 million tonnes), Zaporizhia (3.23 million tonnes), and Kherson (3.11 million) regions.
The Ministry of Agrarian Policy also announced the completion of the harvesting of rapeseed: in total, 2.8 million tonnes of seeds were harvested from an area of 1 million hectares. Its average yield was 2.79 tonnes per ha.
Farmers from 13 regions harvested 715,400 tonnes of sunflower from 344,000 hectares (5% of the planned area) with an average yield of 2.08 tonnes per ha.
Agrarians from 15 regions threshed 34,300 tonnes of buckwheat from 27,940 hectares (one third of the planned area), and agricultural producers from 11 regions harvested 88,680 tonnes of millet from 39,840 hectares (51%).
According to the Ministry of Agrarian Policy, sugar beet harvesting has started in Vinnytsia, Rivne and Cherkasy regions. A total of 148,000 tonnes were harvested from 3,300 hectares (1% of the planned area).
