Ukraine’s economy ministry revises downwards grain forecast for 2020 to 60 mln tonnes due to lack of moisture, pandemic

The Ministry for Development of Economy, Trade and Agriculture of Ukraine has predicted that Ukrainian farmers in 2020 will harvest 60 million tonnes of grain and leguminous crops compared with the previous forecast of 65-70 million tonnes.

"According to the adjusted forecasts of the Ministry for Development of Economy, Trade and Agriculture in 2020, due to lack of moisture and economic factors caused by the coronavirus disease COVID-19 pandemic, farmers will harvest 60 million tonnes of grain and leguminous crops," the ministry said in a statement.

In addition, according to the ministry, in spite of the dry weather conditions and lack of moisture, agrarians sowed another 3 million hectares of spring grain, leguminous and industrial crops during the week (April 16-23). So, as of April 23, field work was carried out on an area of 7.8 million ha of the projected 15.3 million ha. In particular, the following crops were sown: spring wheat – 119,000 ha out of the projected 132,500 ha, spring barley – 1.07 million ha out of 1.1 million ha, corn – 2.4 million ha out of 5.4 million hectares, sugar beets – 199,800 ha out of 209,000 ha, sunflower – 3.2 million ha out of 6.2 million ha, soybeans – 237,000 ha out of 1.4 million ha.

According to the ministry, the leaders in the sowing rate this week were agricultural producers of Mykolaiv (314,000 more ha), Poltava (274,000 more ha) and Kirovohrad (257,000 more ha), Odesa (247,000 more ha) and Zaporizhia (218,000 more ha) regions.

Source: www.en.interfax.com.ua