Ukrainian agrarians in 2023 plan to increase sown areas under onions, carrots and other vegetables, which will allow for a larger than in 2022 harvest, First Deputy Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food Taras Vysotsky said.
“The Ministry of Agricultural Policy and Food is working to fill the market and stabilize prices. This should be done not through regulation or limitation but through market mechanisms. Because regulation of prices, as practice shows, is realized in the shadow turnover,” – said the official on the air of the marathon “Unified News”.
Speaking about the current prices of vegetables, Vysotsky said that the prices of vegetables are the highest in spring, which is explained by the seasonal factor.
In addition, according to him, their cost was affected by two other factors. “First, the energy crisis created by the aggressor country prevented a large part of the harvest from being saved. Second, many vegetables, primarily onions and carrots, were grown in the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions. Because of the occupation of these regions, vegetables were not available to Ukrainian consumers,” Vysotsky said and expressed confidence that prices would go down with the arrival of the new crop.
According to Gosstat, prices for vegetables in Ukraine for the year to the beginning of March rose by 36.2%, fruit – by 74.9%, while inflation was 24.9%.
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.
