Ukraine Rapeseed Planted Area to Fall Significantly – Minister

Ukraine’s area planted in rapeseed will be down by approximately 40% due to drought, according to the country’s agriculture minister, Oleksiy Pavlenko.

The country had announced it has planned on a cultivated area of rapeseed of 823,000 hectares for the 2016 season, but because of adverse conditions in several regions, the planted area will likely fall to 494,000 hectares.

The decrease in acreage seems to be an ongoing trend, as the 2015 crop was harvested from 685,000 hectares, down from 865,000 hectares the year before due to difficult weather conditions during planting.

The dry weather is also predicted to hurt the country’s corn yields, cutting output to 24.5 million tons – down from last year’s 28.5 million tons, however, the dry weather is not expected to have a negative impact on the country’s winter wheat sowing.

“Our estimate of the final (grains) production, even with all the situation with drought, would be between 58.5 and 60.0 million tons,” said Mr. Pavlenko. Ukraine’s total grain production for 2014 was 64 million tons.

Ukraine has recently been seeking amendments to its 2012, $1.5 billion loan-for-grains trade deal with China allowing for additional flexibility in trading. Ukraine would like to include a clause that allows the country to sell its grain to a third party if Beijing refuses to buy, and would like to revise the system under which China receives commissions for acting as a broker when selling Ukrainian grain to a third party.