Astarta agroindustrial holding, the largest sugar producer in Ukraine, in 2018 harvested 183,000 tonnes of oilseeds, which is 20% more than a year ago, the company’s press service has reported. “In particular, 67,000 tonnes of soybeans and 116,000 tonnes of sunflower were harvested with an average yield of 2.9 tonnes per ha (2017 – 2.2 tonnes per ha of soybeans and 2.3 tonnes per ha of sunflower, respectively),” the company said.
According to the press service, at present, Astarta continues harvesting corn: 65% of the area is threshed with an average yield of 9 tonnes per ha.
“In general, in the current season, the company expects for the first time to overcome the mark of 1 million tonnes of gross harvest of grain and oilseeds,” the agricultural holding said.
Astarta is a vertically integrated agro-industrial holding operating in Poltava, Vinnytsia, Khmelnytsky, Ternopil, Zhytomyr, Chernihiv, Cherkasy and Kharkiv regions.
Ukraine as of August 22, 2018, threshed 34.2 million tonnes of early grain and leguminous crops from 9.8 million hectares (100% of the areas under the crops) with a yield of 3.47 tonnes per hectare, Ukraine’s Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food said on its website.
According to the Ministry, last year the harvest of early grains stood at 37.3 million tonnes gathered from 9.6 million hectares.
This year, Ukrainian farmers harvested 24.4 million tonnes of winter wheat from 6.4 million hectares (100% of the plan) with a yield of 3.81 tonnes per hectare and 0.66 million tonnes of spring wheat from 0.19 million hectares (95%) with a yield of 3.53 tonnes per hectare.
The total yield of winter barley was 3.1 million tonnes harvested from 0.87 million hectares (100% of the plan) with a crop yield of 3.53 tonnes per hectare, the total yield of spring barley was 4.4 million tonnes harvested from 1.6 million hectares (99%) with a crop yield of 2.75 tonnes per hectare.
A total of 388,000 tonnes of rye was harvested from 146,000 hectares (99% of the plan) with a yield of 2.65 tonnes per hectare, 434,000 tonnes of oat from 187,000 hectares (95%) with a yield of 2.32 tonnes per hectare, and 799,000 tonnes of peas from 430,000 hectares (99%) with a yield of 1.86 tonnes per hectare.
Farmers have just started to harvest buckwheat and millet. As of August 22, the total yield of buckwheat was 5,700 tonnes from 4,800 hectares (4% to the plan) with a crop yield of 1.18 tonnes per hectare and the total yield of millet was 3,600 tonnes from 2,000 hectares (4%) with a yield of 1.82 tonnes per hectare.
The ministry also briefed on the rapeseed harvesting campaign: 2.6 million tonnes of winter rapeseeds have also been harvested this year from 969,200 hectares (100% of the plan) with a yield of 2.65 tonnes per hectare and 94,700 tonnes of spring rapeseeds from 47,000 hectares (72%) with a yield of 2.01 tonnes per hectare.
Ukraine by July 6 harvested 6.2 million tonnes of early grain and legumes from 2.09 million hectares (22% of the planned area) with a yield of 2.96 tonnes per hectare.
In particular, farmers harvested 3.77 million tonnes of winter wheat from 1.26 million hectares (20% of the forecast) with a yield of 3 tonnes per hectare, 4,900 tonnes of spring wheat from 1,900 hectares (1%) with a yield of 2.51 tonnes per hectare, Ukraine’s Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food said on Friday.
Some 2.11 million tonnes of winter barley was harvested from 631,500 hectares (76%) with a yield of 3.35 tonnes per hectare, 138,900 tonnes of spring barley from 73,900 hectares (5%) with a yield of 1.88 tonnes per hectares, and 171,500 tonnes of peas from 126,800 hectares (30%) with a yield of 1.35 tonnes per hectare.
In addition, 22 regions continue winter rapeseed harvesting: they have already threshed 756,300 tonnes of rapeseeds from 353,400 hectares (36% to the forecast) with a yield of 2.14 tonnes per hectare.
As of July 6, the harvesting campaign was under way in almost all regions of Ukraine, except for Kharkiv and Chernihiv regions.
The ministry predicts Ukraine will harvest over 60 million tonnes of grain in 2018. Last year, some 61.3 million tonnes of grain was gathered.
