KYIV. Sept 7 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Industrial Milk Company (IMC) could expand its fields sown with winter wheat for the 2016 harvest to 16,000-20,000 hectares compared to 12,500 hectares for the 2015 harvest, depending on the weather.
“We plan to increase fields with winter crops. Last year we had 12,500 hectares, and this year from 16,000 to 20,000 hectares would be allocated for winter wheat, depending on weather,” IMC CEO Alex Lissitsa told reporters at a press conference in Kyiv last week.
He said that in general, the structure of fields for the 2016 harvest would not change, and that the core crop will be corn.
Lissitsa added that due to hot weather in 2015, Ukraine could harvest 20-22 million tonnes of corn.
“Ukraine would harvest 20-22 million tonnes of corn, which is around 20% down on what was planned. Western regions suffered from drought, these are Ivano-Frankivsk, Khmelnytsky and Ternopil regions, and there are problems with the north of Zhytomyr region. Good harvests are expected in Kharkiv, Poltava and Cherkasy regions,” he said.
IMC cultivates grains, oilseeds and potatoes. It is also one of the largest milk producers in Ukraine. The company owns storage capacity of 554,000 tonnes of grains and oilseeds. Its land bank is 136,700 hectares.
