The Ministry of Agrarian Policy of Ukraine due to favorable weather conditions has improved the forecast of harvest in 2023 by about 4%, Minister Mykola Solskiy said on the air of the national telethon.
“We have adjusted our forecast of this year’s harvest compared to last year’s … by 10% down. But the weather is really this year, according to the state as of today, ufu-tufu-tufu, so that it would continue to be so, it is good enough, let’s say, cautiously. And we have already adjusted this forecast for the better: we think that the drop will be by +/- 6 percent compared to last year. This is preliminary, because there are still a few months ahead,” said the Minister.
He specified that the initial forecast was based on the change in the structure of sown areas caused by logistical problems in favor of more expensive crops, but with lower yields (for example, soybeans or sunflowers instead of corn), as well as less investment in land.
Solsky specified that canola, barley and wheat have been harvested for several weeks now.
“Rapeseed (will be) like last year, maybe even a little more. Barley – less, because less was planted, by 15-20 percent. And there will be less wheat because less was planted. We hope to compensate with spring crops in the fall, but let’s not guess,” – said the Minister.
As reported, First Deputy Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food Taras Vysotskyy at the end of June predicted grain harvest this year at the level of about 46 million tons compared to 53.1 million tons in the previous season.
At the same time, Ukrhydrometeocenter in early July gave a more optimistic estimate – about 49.6 million tons.
