Ukrainian farmers sowed 2 million hectares of grain as of April 24, but the sown area is 17% smaller than on the same date in 2024, the Agriculture Ministry said on Friday.
The area included 702,100 hectares of spring barley, 199,800 hectares of wheat spring, 705,000 hectares of corn, 201,800 hectares of peas and 154,200 hectares of oats, the ministry said in the Telegram messenger.
First Deputy Finance Minister Taras Vysotskiy said this month that snow had hit most Ukrainian regions. In addition, unusually cold weather in early April had delayed the spring sowing campaign. He said the delay was at least a week.
Ukraine's state agricultural meteorologists said this week that soil moisture reserves in most Ukrainian regions were sufficient or optimal in mid-April.
Future harvest depends largely on whether the plants have sufficient moisture for germination and further growth.
Outlook for soybeans and sunflowers in 2025
The ministry also said farmers planted 1.24 million hectares of sunflowers and 187,600 hectares of soybeans.
In addition, consultancy APK-Inform reported last month that the area planted with soybeans could decrease from 10% to 13%. The total area, therefore, should be between 2.3 and 2.35 million hectares in 2025. The main cause of this reduction is the fall in soybean prices, caused by a record harvest in 2024.
According to the consultancy, Ukraine’s soybean harvest in 2025 could be between 5.8 and 6.2 million metric tons. However, the final volume will depend on the presence or absence of rain in May and June. The amount of precipitation in these months will be crucial in determining yields.
On the other hand, the consultancy also noted that Ukraine is likely to increase its sunflower seed harvest by 14% to 15.2 million tonnes in 2025, thanks to a larger sown area. Consequently, sunflower oil production could increase by 14% to 6.54 million tonnes.
Sugar exceeds expectations
The ministry said farmers had also sown 228,500 hectares of sugar beet as of April 24, which was 9.7% less than the total area of sugar beet sown in Ukraine for the 2024 harvest.
The current sowing area has already exceeded the forecast of the country's sugar union, Ukrtsukor.
Yana Kavushevska, head of Ukrtsukor, told delegates at the S&P Global sugar conference in Geneva that Ukrainian farmers would sow 210,000 hectares with sugar beet by 2025.
In February, his estimate was 230,000, while in March Vysotskiy said 250,000 hectares would be sown with sugar beet.
Ukraine will produce just 1.5 million tonnes of sugar this year, down from 1.8 million last year. The country will export 180,511 tonnes to world markets, compared with 746,000 tonnes last year, Kavushevska said.
Source: Notícias Agrícolas
