The agriculture ministry said this month the 2023 grain harvest could drop to 44.3 million tonnes from 53.1 million tonnes as large swathes of Ukrainian territory are occupied and mined. The country's grain sowing area could shrink by 1.4 million hectares to 10.2 million hectares this year, it added. APK-Inform said Ukraine's grain exportable surplus in the 2023/24 season can total 29.3 million tonnes, also including 2 million tonnes of barley and 18.2 million tonnes of corn. The consultancy said local consumption could amount to 17.8 million tonnes in 2023/24, or 7% less than the previous season.
APK-Inform also said Ukraine's 2023 sunflower seed harvest could increase by 15% to 12.8 million tonnes thanks to a larger sowing area. The larger harvest could allow Ukraine, a leading global sunflower oil producer and exporter, to increase sunoil output by 5% to 4.9 million tonnes in 2023/24 and export 4.5 million tonnes. The consultancy said farmers could also harvest 4.2 million tonnes of soy beans and 3.5 million tonnes of rape seed.
UKRAINE 2023/24, 2022/23 GRAIN HARVEST, EXPORTS (tonnes)
commodity harvest exports harvest exports
2023/24 2023/24 2022/23 2022/23
wheat 16,221,000 8,800,000 18,936,000 14,000,000
corn 22,883,000 18,200,000 26,670,000 23,500,000
barley 5,180,000 2,000,000 5,679,000 2,500,000
GRAIN 45,614,000 29,284,000 52,419,000 40,337,000
sunseed 12,782,000 1,400,000 11,154,000 2,280,000
sunoil 4,916,000 4,500,000 4,671,000 4,300,000
(source APK-Inform)
(Reporting by Pavel Polityuk; Editing by Kirsten Donovan and
Louise Heavens)
