In the forthcoming marketing year (MY) 2020-2021 Ukraine may expect a new record of corn harvested and the second best volume of wheat, as Ukrainian Grain Association (UGA) reported to the press conference Outcomes of Grain Season 2019-2020 and Forecasts for 2020-2021 MY.
“In the new MY 2020-2021 Ukraine may well gain the crop volume close to the previous year again i.e. 97.1M t, while the export of grains and oilseeds might amount to 58.8M t”, says the UGA forecast as of June 2020.
The industry association pointed out that a high gross harvest volume in the new grain season is expectable thanks to the new record of corn harvest – 36.9M t, 31M t of which to be exported.
UGA also anticipates this year the second best wheat yield after the previous one – 26.8M t, 18M of which would go overseas.
Let’s remind you that last year Ukraine achieved several records in grain production: 28.2M t of wheat (20.5M t exported), 35.2M t of corn (30.3M t exported). In general, Ukraine is in the world top five of grain exporters, and in pecuniary estimation the country was the second after the USA in 2019 with $9.6Bn beating Argentina ($9.3Bn) and Russia ($7.9Bn). In 2019-2020 MY there were more than 98M t of grains and oilseeds produced in Ukraine, 60M t of which were exported.
Moreover, as UGA President Mykola Gorbachev noted at the same press conference: We possess enormous potential for the grain production increase. While today Ukraine harvests some 4 t of wheat per hectare, France makes it 8 t. Therefore, we are capable of doubling the harvest number at the same planted acreage, so the wheat crop would be not these record-breaking 28M t, but over 50M”.
As for the corn, his opinion is that the yield could be by one-third more: “We are proud with our 35 million tons planted and cropped, yet our productivity is just over 7 tons per hectare. Compare it to the USA with their average 11 tpha”.
https://www.ukrinform.ru/rubric-economy/3051956-ukraina-mozet-polucit-urozaj-okolo-97-mln-t-zerna-eksperty.html
https://www.ukrinform.ru/rubric-economy/3052308-ukraina-mozet-vdvoe-uvelicit-urozajnost-psenicy-ekspert.html