KYIV. April 10 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The gross grain harvest in 2015 may be lower than last year’s harvest and could reach 57.36 million tonnes, Head of the Business Project Service at APK-Inform news agency Rodion Rybchinsky has said.
“The fields sowed with crops will almost remain unchanged… However we predict a fall in the yield for almost all crops,” he said at a press conference in Kyiv.
Rybchinsky added that according to his projections, fields with grain crops will total 14.825 million hectares compared to 14.8 million hectares in 2014. The average yield could fall from 43.7 centners per hectare to 39.7 centners per hectare.
The expert said that thanks to the good hibernation period the wheat harvest could be 23.6 million tonnes. The corn harvest could fall from 28.5 million tonnes to 24.3 million tonnes mainly due to the reduction of fields with corn.
He also said that the number of fields with soybeans will increase by 19%, to 2.15 million hectares, which would boost its harvest to 4.036 million tonnes. The expert said that sunflower harvest in 2015 could amount to 9.574 million tonnes, and rapeseeds harvest could amount to 1.491 million tonnes.
