The increase in yields was the main factor behind the rise in the gross harvest of major agricultural crops in Ukraine in 2026.
According to the Ministry of Agrarian Policy, the average yield of grains and legumes as of October 13 reached 49.1 centners per hectare, compared to 43.5 centners per hectare a year earlier.
The most notable positive trends among major crops were observed in sunflowers, wheat, rapeseed, and barley.
Sunflower yields rose by 17.7%—to 21.6 centners per hectare, compared to 18.4 centners per hectare a year earlier. While the harvested area decreased by 12.1%, the gross harvest still increased by 3.4%—to 7.44 million metric tons.
Wheat yields rose by 13.2% to 51.1 ts/ha, which led to a 14.8% increase in the gross harvest to 26.15 million metric tons.
As for rapeseed, the yield rose by 12.4%—to 29.2 centners per hectare—and the gross harvest increased by 17.1%, to 3.88 million metric tons.
Barley yielded an average of 44.3 centners per hectare, compared to 39.7 centners per hectare last year, meaning the yield increased by 11.8%. The gross harvest increased by 22.3% to 6.55 million metric tons.
Peas also showed positive trends: the yield increased by 12.3%, and the gross harvest by 25.1%.
The situation is different for soybeans and sugar beets. Soybean yields fell by 4.5% to 21.9 centners per hectare, while sugar beet yields also declined by approximately 4.5% to about 500 centners per hectare.
Thus, in 2026, the growth in gross yield for a number of key crops will be driven primarily not by an expansion of cultivated areas, but by increased production efficiency per hectare.
Source: Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine.
As of October 13, 2026, Ukrainian farmers had harvested approximately 13.9 million metric tons of oilseeds, which is 2.1% more than on the same date last year.
Sunflowers and rapeseed accounted for the bulk of the harvest, while the soybean harvest remains below last year’s level so far.
Sunflower harvests totaled 7.44 million metric tons from 3.44 million hectares, or 66% of the projected area. Despite a 12.1% reduction in the harvested area, the gross harvest was 3.4% higher than last year’s thanks to an increase in yield to 21.6 centners per hectare, up from 18.4 centners per hectare.
Rapeseed production totaled 3.88 million metric tons from 1.33 million hectares. This is 17.1% more than last year. The average yield is 29.2 centners per hectare, compared to 26 centners per hectare.
Soybeans yielded 2.56 million metric tons from 1.17 million hectares, or 73% of the projected area. Compared to last year, the gross harvest is 16.9% lower, and the yield decreased to 21.9 centners per hectare, down from 22.9 centners per hectare.
Among late-season crops, the corn harvest has accelerated sharply. Over the past week, the gross harvest increased from 1.6 million to 3.49 million metric tons. A total of 589,400 hectares, or 13% of the projected area, has been threshed, with an average yield of 59.1 centners per hectare.
Although less corn had been harvested by mid-October than a year ago, its yield is already 7.8% higher than last year’s.
The sugar beet harvest is lagging behind. 1.58 million metric tons have been harvested from 31,600 hectares, or 19% of the projected area. A year earlier, by the same date, 4.72 million metric tons had been harvested from 90,000 hectares.
The buckwheat and millet harvests are nearing completion. Buckwheat has been threshed on 91% of the area, with 55,600 metric tons harvested. Millet has been harvested on 88% of the area, with a gross yield of 81,300 metric tons.
Source: Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine, data as of October 13, 2026.
In the 2025–26 marketing year, rapeseed processing in Ukraine increased 2.7-fold, and rapeseed oil exports increased 2.5-fold compared to the previous marketing year. In total, 42% of the rapeseed harvest was processed domestically (last year this figure was 15%), which is an all-time record since the crop began to be grown in Ukraine. Foreign exchange earnings from rapeseed oil exports more than tripled, reaching $588 million.
This was reported by Dmytro Kysilevsky, Deputy Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Economic Development, citing data from the “Ukroliyaprom” association. He also noted that the share of domestic processing of the soybean harvest in the 2025–26 marketing year rose from 39% to 54.2% (also a historic record for processing). Despite a decline in the soybean harvest from 6.6 million metric tons to 4.8 million metric tons, foreign exchange earnings from exports of soybean oil and meal rose by 12.3%, to $1.02 billion.
Compared to the previous marketing year, the harvested areas for these crops changed insignificantly: rapeseed +15.7%, soybeans -3.9%. In total, the area planted with these crops increased from 3.25 million hectares to 3.37 million hectares.
According to the Ministry of Agrarian Policy, additional revenue to the state budget from export duties on soybeans and rapeseed amounted to 2.174 billion UAH for the marketing year, i.e., for the period from September 2025 to August 2026.
“These figures show that export duties on soybeans and rapeseed have been effective: the share of processing has increased—Ukrainian plants have seen higher utilization rates; the area under cultivation has expanded—farmers consider these crops profitable to grow; and the budget has received additional revenue from duties as well as from plant operations. Step by step, Ukraine is moving away from low-value commodity exports, increasing processing, foreign exchange earnings, and tax revenues, and developing new plants that offer decent wages for Ukrainians. “When Ukraine exports processed products rather than soybeans and rapeseed, the growth in foreign exchange revenue per metric ton of exports ranges from 30% to 50%,” noted Dmytro Kysilevsky.
On July 16, 2025, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine approved the introduction of a 10% export duty on soybeans and rapeseed. The duties took effect on September 4, 2025.
As of September 23, Ukrainian farmers had planted 741,400 hectares with winter grains, or 14.2% of the projected area, and 958,800 hectares with winter rapeseed, or 86.7% of the projection, according to the press service of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food.
Specifically, 662,400 hectares (14.6% of the forecast) have been planted with wheat and triticale (a hybrid of wheat and rye – IF-U), 53,100 hectares (8.9%) with barley, and 25,800 hectares (33.6%) with rye.
The largest areas of winter grains have been planted in the Mykolaiv region—101,000 hectares, including 79,000 hectares of wheat and triticale and 22,000 hectares of barley.
In the Poltava region, 91.3 thousand hectares have been planted, of which 87.3 thousand hectares are wheat and triticale, and 4 thousand hectares are rye.
In the Dnipropetrovsk region, 86,300 hectares have been planted with winter grains, including 84,000 hectares of wheat and triticale, 2,100 hectares of barley, and 200 hectares of rye.
The Ukrainian Grain Association (UGA) is urging the Verkhovna Rada and the government to repeal the 10% export duty on soybeans and rapeseed, the association reported.
According to the association’s estimates, in the 2025/26 marketing year, Ukraine exported 2.7 million metric tons of soybeans, compared to 3.8 million metric tons in the previous season, and 1.82 million metric tons of rapeseed, compared to 3.2 million metric tons. The UGA considers the introduction of the export duty to be one of the key reasons for the decline in exports of these crops.
The association notes that the additional 10% export duty diverts a portion of revenue from the production chain and increases the financial burden on agricultural producers, especially small and medium-sized ones, for whom selling their harvest at a competitive export price is crucial for covering loan payments, land rent, fuel, fertilizers, plant protection products, and labor costs.
The UZA also notes that the government has streamlined the procedure for confirming farmers’ eligibility for duty exemptions on their own-grown produce through the State Agrarian Register. However, in the association’s view, this mechanism does not address the systemic problem, as a significant portion of Ukrainian soybeans and rapeseed passes through the commercial distribution chain.
According to the UZA, export restrictions create imbalances in the domestic market and limit producers’ ability to choose the most economically viable sales channel. The association considers it important to maintain the ability to export products to markets where there is demand and where producers can obtain competitive prices.
Ukraine’s oilseed crop is expected to total about 20 million metric tons, Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food Taras Vysotsky said at a briefing on Friday.
“Preliminary estimates indicate a sunflower harvest of about 12 million metric tons. We have harvested 4 million metric tons of rapeseed. We expect the soybean harvest to be about 4 million metric tons as well,” Vysotsky said.
He also noted that once the sunflower harvest is complete, there may be adjustments in the range of 1–1.5 million metric tons. According to him, this is because sunflowers are grown by small-scale farmers who are not required to submit statistics and, consequently, do not do so.
