As of May 9, Ukraine has sown 4.32 million hectares with spring grain and leguminous crops, which is in line with last year’s figure and accounts for 76% of the plan, the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food reported on Friday.
According to its data, 1.07 million hectares were sown during the week, reducing the gap with last year’s sowing schedule by 6.1%.
As noted by the Ministry of Agrarian Policy, 2.9 million hectares have already been sown with corn (1.92 million hectares a week earlier), 733,400 hectares with barley (715,200 hectares), 212,600 hectares with spring wheat (207,900 hectares), 208,900 hectares with peas (205,700 hectares), and 157,000 hectares with oats (157,000 hectares). ha (207.9 thousand ha), peas – 208.9 thousand ha (205.7 thousand ha), oats – 157 thousand ha (157 thousand ha), buckwheat – 16.3 thousand ha (7 thousand ha), millet – 15.7 thousand ha (6 thousand ha).
According to the plan, corn sowing reached 73%, barley – 94%, spring wheat – 93%, peas – 96%, oats – 97%, buckwheat – 18%, millet – 20%.
Last year, as of May 10, corn was sown on 2.84 million hectares, barley – 779,900 hectares, spring wheat – 244,900 hectares, peas – 161,600 hectares, oats – 165,000 hectares, buckwheat – 14,800 hectares, millet – 28,500 hectares.
According to information from the Ministry of Agrarian Policy, the Poltava region leads in terms of sowing rates with 509,700 hectares, followed by the Kirovograd region with 352,000 hectares, the Chernihiv region with 349,700 hectares, the Cherkasy region with 339,800 hectares, and the Sumy region with 294,300 hectares.
Technical crops were sown on an area of 5.2 million hectares, compared with 3.432 million hectares a week earlier and 5.42 million hectares last year on the same date.
In particular, sunflower crops reached 3.5 million hectares (2.36 million hectares a week earlier and 3.96 million hectares last year), soybeans – 1.3 million hectares (0.73 million hectares and 1.20 million hectares), and sugar beet – 1.2 million hectares (0.73 million hectares and 1.20 million hectares). ha (2.36 million ha a week ago and 3.96 million ha last year), soybeans – 1.3 million ha (0.73 million ha and 1.20 million ha) and sugar beets – 0.22 million ha (0.22 million ha and 0.25 million ha).
The Ministry of Agrarian Policy notes that sunflower crops currently account for 69% of the plan, soybeans – 55.9%, and sugar beets – 99%.
Agrotrade has completed the spring sowing of spring crops, for which it has allocated more than 30 thousand hectares, the company’s press service posted on Facebook on Wednesday.
According to the report, favorable weather in early spring allowed Agrotrade to start sowing in March, although it had previously started in April. However, due to precipitation, field work had to be suspended for some time, and when it resumed, more machinery had to be used than planned.
“This year, we focused on using our own equipment in the problem areas near the sites of shelling and active hostilities. This allowed us to work efficiently despite limited working hours and problems with satellite navigation. The delay caused by weather conditions did not have a significant impact and did not cause any economic losses, as we had foreseen the possibility of using additional equipment in advance. As a result, we completed the spring sowing campaign even ahead of schedule,” said Oleksandr Ovsyanyk, Director of the Agricultural Department.
According to him, Agrotrade has planted 12.52 thou hectares of sunflower, 8.27 thou hectares of soybeans, 6.4 thou hectares of corn, 3.75 thou hectares of spring wheat, and 230 thou hectares of industrial hemp for the 2014 harvest. Buckwheat and peanuts were also sown for the first time.
The Agrotrade Group is a vertically integrated holding company with a full agro-industrial cycle (production, processing, storage and trade of agricultural products). It cultivates over 70 thousand hectares of land in Chernihiv, Sumy, Poltava and Kharkiv regions. Its main crops are sunflower, corn, winter wheat, soybeans and rapeseed. It has its own network of elevators with a simultaneous storage capacity of 570 thousand tons.
The group also produces hybrid seeds of corn and sunflower, barley, and winter wheat. In 2014, a seed plant with a capacity of 20 thousand tons of seeds per year was built on the basis of Kolos seed farm (Kharkiv region). In 2018, Agrotrade launched its own brand Agroseeds on the market.
Vsevolod Kozhemiako is the founder and CEO of Agrotrade.
Agricultural Group “TAS Agro” has finished spring sowing of spring crops, for which it allocated 51,5 thousand hectares, reducing the area of oilseeds compared to the last year and expanded the grain group, the company said in Facebok.
“The area of crops in the company as a whole has not changed, but because of food security and market situation this season sugar beet and rye have been added to the cropping structure,” the company stressed.
According to the report, the most part of the area from 51.5 ths. ha is devoted to corn – 24.1 ths. ha, sunflower – 15.9 ths. ha and soybean – 11.5 ths. ha.
Before the war TAS Agro worked 83 thsd. ha in Vinnitsa, Kyiv, Kirovograd, Chernigov, Nikolayev, Sumy, Kherson and Dnipropetrovsk regions, was involved in dairy farming (up to 5,500 cattle), owned six elevators with one-time storage capacity of 250 000 tons.
TAS Group was founded in 1998. The sphere of its business interests covers the financial sector (banking and insurance segments) and pharmacy, as well as industry, real estate, venture projects.
The founder of TAS is Sergiy Tigipko.
Ukraine as of May 7, had sown 4.37 million hectares with spring grain and leguminous crops, or about 58% of the area planned for spring sowing, of which 1.45 million hectares were sown over the past week, the Economy Ministry said on Friday.
According to its data, as of the indicated date, some 2.4 million hectares were sown with corn (46% of the forecast), barley were sown on 1.3 million hectares (95%), peas some 226,400 hectares (96%), oats some 185,400 hectares (96%), wheat some 172,200 hectares (98%).
In addition, 3.2 million hectares were sown with sunflower (50% of the forecast), sugar beet on 223,000 hectares (98%), soybeans on 254,800 hectares (18%), buckwheat on 19,000 hectares (24%).
According to the Economy Ministry, agricultural producers in 14 regions have completely finished sowing early spring grains and leguminous.
Astarta agroindustrial holding, the largest sugar producer in Ukraine, has completed sowing of spring crops on around 170,000 ha.
The holding said in a press release that sugar beet was sowed on 41,000 ha, sunflower on 41,000 ha, corn on 67,000 ha, soybean on 20,000 ha, and the rest are under other crops (barley, oats, buckwheat and other).
“The structure of crop rotation reflects the existing market trends. Thus the reduction of sugar beet plantings will allow the company to organize harvesting and processing of beets in the optimal terms, focusing on the cost-efficiency and quality of sugar. In addition to own beet production Astarta will traditionally cooperate with farmers who supply its factories with sugar beets,” the company said.
The increase in areas under corn could also bring a good financial result against the backdrop of the continuing trend of price recovery for this crop.
This spring sowing campaign was conducted in a record short terms.
“All technological operations were carried out in the optimal time, which along with appropriate level of soil moisture gave a quick start to plants growing. The company is progressing in improving the efficiency of field works: we are concentrating each culture sowing on the large plots, using GPS tracking not only for tractors, but for all trailed aggregates,” the company said.
As of the end of May, winter and spring crops are mostly in good and excellent condition. The weather in the Eastern and Western production units contributes to their development.
