Page 61 - UKRRptMar19

9.1.6 Agriculture sector news
Ukraine has said it harvested a record 70.1mn tonnes of grain in 2018, up from 61.3mn in 2017. Exports could rise to by 7.8mnt to 47.2mnt during the July 2018 to June 2019 marketing year, AGWeb.com reports. Total grain exports during the current marketing year from the Ukraine have risen by 3.8mnt to 27.5mnt from 23.8mnt during the same point last year. As of January 30, Ukraine has exported almost 12.2mnt of corn as of January 30, compared with 7.6mnt in the same period last season. Wheat exports declined by.7mnt to 11.5mnt as of January 30. Assisted by strong supplies of feed grains, corn and barley, and a strong US dollar the Ukrainian corn export program will be one of the strongest on record. The combination of large feed grain and corn supplies and a strong dollar should continue to displace US corn exports in to northern Africa and Middle East destinations.
With last year’s 70mn ton bumper harvest overflowing silos, the government plans to spend $30mn this year to subsidize construction of 2mn tons of additional storage. In a first step, Grain Alliance, a large farming company in central Ukraine, intends to increase its elevator capacity by 40%, adding 100,000 tons, the company tells Interfax-Ukraine. Ukrzaliznytsia says it lost $18mn last year due to elevators not working on weekends.
Taking advantage of unseasonably warm weather, farmers in southern Ukraine have started spring sowing – one month earlier than last year, ProAgro reports. In Kherson, farmers are sowing spring barley. Separately, the Agrarian Policy Ministry reports that the supply of spring seeds, 684,000 tons, meets “100% of the demand.” This year, farmers are expected to fill 27.7mn hectares, virtually the same area as last year.
Ukraine’s corn harvest last year was up 50% y/y, to a record 35mn tons,
reports the US Department of Agriculture’s Foreign Agricultural Service. The Service reports that 5% of the corn may have been left to rot in the fields because silos were full. On Wednesday, the State Statistics Service reported that the nation’s capacity for simultaneous storage of grain, beans and oil seeds grew last year by 7.3%, to 78.3mn tons. Of this amount, farms owned 58%.
Ukraine’s sugar beet plantings are to drop 20% this season, to 220,000 hectares , S&P Global Platts reports from London, citing “a source close to the National Association of Sugar Producers.” Sugar experts forecasts a similar drop in plantings in the EU and Russia. Platts notes that Germany's Suedzucker, the world's largest corporate sugar producer, said last month it is considering closing factories. In September, Tereos, France's largest sugar producer, said it was planning to cut plantings to cut sugar beet production by 5%.
Capital investments in farming hit $2bn during the first three quarters of last year , Elena Kovaleva, deputy minister of Agrarian Policy and Food, tells reporters. A major portion went into two declining areas of animal husbandry – cattle breeding and pig production. About $500mn was invested in dairy processing and baby food production. Kovaleva called this investment volume “amazing.”
Ukrainian producers will likely cut the areas sown with sugar beets to
61 UKRAINE Country Report March 2019 www.intellinews.com