In 2024, Ukraine imported seeds of mainly grains and oilseeds mainly from the European Union, most of them were imported of hybrid corn, and the purchase of rapeseed was also increased, the press service of the National Research Center Institute of Agrarian Economics reports.
“Ukraine has purchased seeds of grains and oilseeds, sugar beets and vegetables abroad for $381.3 million. At the same time, the vast majority of supplies – 52.5% – were made last year by the EU member states. They sold more than $200 million worth of seeds to domestic farmers. The share of the United States of America is 19.0%, and the volume of imports from this country amounted to $72.6 million,” the report says.
In the structure of grain seeds imports to Ukraine in 2024, hybrid corn accounted for 95.8%, or 7.6 thsd tonnes. Ukraine purchased 0.7 thsd tonnes of seed wheat, 0.3 thsd tonnes of barley, 42 thsd tonnes of rye, and 32 thsd tonnes of sorghum. The main suppliers were France, Germany, the Czech Republic, Denmark, and Italy.
The share of sunflower seeds in the imports of oilseeds is 81.5% (17.4 thsd tonnes), while 4.1 thsd tonnes of rapeseed and 0.7 thsd tonnes of soybeans were also purchased. The purchase of seeds of grains and oilseeds accounts for about 80% of domestic imports, where sunflower seeds account for 55% of its value, which last year amounted to $211.1 million.
In addition, Ukraine purchased more than three quarters of sunflower seeds from the US – 5.5 thsd tonnes for $72.5 mln (34.3%) and Turkey – 7.9 thsd tonnes for $85.7 mln (40.6%). Smaller volumes of sunflower seeds came from France – 1.9 thsd tonnes worth $24.8 mln (11.7%), Italy – 0.6 thsd tonnes worth $4.7 mln (2.2%) and Hungary – 0.4 thsd tonnes worth $5.0 mln (2.4%).
Only one tenth of the total amount of seed purchases – $41.4 mln – was spent on corn, the main suppliers of which were France – 2.7 thsd tonnes ($19.0 mln). tons for $19.8 million (47.8%), Romania – 1.7 thousand tons for $6.4 million (15.5%), Austria – 1.6 thousand tons for $7.5 million (18.1%), and Hungary – 1.1 thousand tons for $3.9 million (9.5%), as well as Germany (68 tons for $1 million) and Italy (131 tons for $0.4 million).
As for soybeans, the country imported the seeds worth $2.9 mln from Canada (270 tons – 38% of soybean imports), Austria (186 tons), Romania (119 tons) and France (89 tons).
The purchases of rapeseed in 2024 increased compared to the previous year to $45.2 mln. The main suppliers were Germany – 1.7 thsd tonnes for $17.6 mln (38.9%), France – 1.1 thsd tonnes for $12.4 mln (27.4%), Spain – 0.9 thsd tonnes for $11.7 mln (25.9%), and for the first time New Zealand, which supplied 209 thsd tonnes for $1.9 mln.
In addition, the volume of purchases of seeds of niche crops, including sorghum, flax, hemp and mustard, is increasing. The main suppliers are EU countries, including France, Germany and Denmark.
“The possibility of obtaining seeds from the world’s leading countries allows national breeding and seed production to compete freely abroad, which improves their further prospects for development and entry into the markets of Europe and America,” the Institute of Agrarian Economics summarized.
Harvest of seeds of the main types of oilseeds in Ukraine in 2023/24 MY will grow to 19.5 million tons, which is 7.7% higher than in the previous season, predicted the association “Ukroliaprom”.
The industry association recalled that by exporting sunflower seeds from Ukraine sufficient to meet the needs of the EU and other countries in volumes, the country loses the market for sunflower oil and meal in these countries.
“The mass export of oilseeds from Ukraine to the world market has led to a sharp drop in prices, which has caused discontent among farmers in European countries. As a consequence, the mass export of sunflower seeds from Ukraine has led on the part of some EU countries to a ban on imports into their territory until mid-September 2023, and possibly until 2024”, – noted in “Ukroliaprom”.
The association expressed confidence that this would not have happened if the repeated requests of Ukroliaprom to limit sunflower seed exports, particularly to EU countries, by introducing additional fees and licensing had been taken into account.
Ukroliaprom expects soybean exports from Ukraine to exceed 3.0 million tons at the end of MY 2022/23, or more than triple against MY 2021/22.
“This may negatively affect domestic processing, which even under martial law remained not only stable, but also increased,” experts emphasized.
The industry association expects the highest production growth in MY 2023/24 for soybeans – by 12.2% to 4.107 million tons. This will happen thanks to a 20.5% increase in sown areas, which reached 1.84 million hectares, but the yield of the oilseed crop will increase by only 0.4% to 22.3 c/ha.
Sunflower production this season will increase by 6.5% year-on-year to 11.813 million tons. Despite the expansion of areas under the crop by 7.7% to 5.64 million hectares, analysts expect yields to be 3.3% lower than last year’s -20.9 c/ha.
Ukrpoliyaprom expects a 9.1% increase in the gross rapeseed harvest, which will amount to 3.318 million tons. It will be harvested from almost 1.35 million hectares (+16.3%) at a yield of 26.5 c/ha (-9.3%).
“At the same time, we should take into account significantly lower carryover residues of oilseeds in Ukraine at the beginning of MY 2023/24 against the beginning of the previous season. Accordingly, the supply in 2023/24 MY will be less, which requires urgent action at the government level to create conditions for maximum domestic processing and increase exports of products with high added value,” – summarized in the industry association.
Ukraine exported 1,640 tonnes of seeds to the countries of the European Union in January-October 2021, which is twice the figures for the entire 2020 (820 tonnes) and 5 times more than in 2019 (320 tonnes), according a Thursday posting on the website of the State Service for Food Safety and Consumer Protection.
“Opening the European market for us is a 10-year way. Negotiations on the recognition of domestic seeds as compliant with EU requirements began in 2011 and lasted a very long time. Now, we have every opportunity to benefit from the many years of work of negotiators – dozens of people from business and government,” the authority quoted its head Vladyslava Mahaletska speaking at the online conference Seed Forum 2021.
According to the authority, in January-October 2021, 1,210 tonnes of corn seeds, 330 tonnes of wheat seeds, and 50 tonnes of sunflower seeds and all other crops in total were exported to the EU.
To open the export of seeds from Ukraine and to comply with the phytosanitary requirements of the EU, in 2021 17 areas in Ukraine on a total of 673 hectares were assigned the status of pest-free, to be able to grow seed on them.
