In 2018, Ukrainian farmers gathered a record grain harvest totaling 70.1 million tons, which would allow them to export 47-50 million tons of grain, Acting Agrarian Policy and Food Minister of Ukraine Maksym Martyniuk said.
“70.1 million tons of grains is a record harvest in the entire history of observations. And, respectively, it gives a chance to predict a larger than usual export volume of Ukrainian grain. We forecast 47 million tons. Traders predict that they will be able to sell 50 million tons of grain,” the official said.
According to the press service of the Agrarian Policy and Food Ministry of Ukraine, the largest harvest of grain totaling 70.1 million tons was harvested in 2018, which is a record-high over the times of Independent Ukraine.
In particular, the Ukrainian farmers gathered 35.5 million tons of corn, up by 44% YoY (the previous record was set in 2013 – 30.9 million tons).
Also, records were set for harvesting some oilseeds.
In 2018, 13.7 million tons of sunflower seeds were harvested, up by 12% (the previous record was set in 2016 – 13.6 million tons). Also, 4.4 million tons of soybeans were gathered, up by 13% (the previous record was set in 2016 – 4.2 million tons).
As of December 18, about 21 million tons of grains were exported (compared with 19.3 million tons recorded as of the corresponding date in 2017). In particular, Ukraine exported 10.02 million tons of wheat and flour (11.1 million tons in 2017); 3.1 million tons of barley (3.8 million tons); 7.5 million tons of corn (4.4 million tons); and 0.4 million tons of other grain crops (0.06 million tons). (Ukrinform/Business World Magazine)