Ukraine sees its 2024 winter wheat area rising to 4.3 mln ha – ministry data
Ukraine’s agriculture ministry said on Tuesday the country’s 2024 winter wheat area was likely to rise to 4.3 million hectares from around 4.1 million hectares in 2023.
Farmers have already started the winter wheat sowing, seeding the first 42,500 hectares or 1% of the expected sowing area, the ministry said in a statement.
Ukraine is a traditional grower of winter wheat which accounts for at least 95% of the overall wheat output.
The ministry also said farmers could sow 683,900 hectares of winter barley and 1.19 million hectares of winter rape.
Ukraine is a major grain producer but the collapse in July of an agreement which had allowed safe grain exports via its Black Sea ports has led to speculation that farmers might sow less wheat because of shrinking profit margins due to costlier export routes.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Pavel Polityuk; editing by Jason Neely and Timothy Heritage)
