KIEV, Feb 23 (Reuters) – Ukraine’s winter crops continue to deteriorate and its wheat crop is now likely to be 17.3 million tonnes, down 500,000 tonnes from a December forecast.
That would be down from 24.8 million tonnes last year, said analyst UkrAgroConsult said on Tuesday
“We have revised down our wheat harvest forecast as a significant part of the winter wheat area is in a poor state,” Yelizaveta Malyshko, UkrAgroConsult’s analyst, told Reuters.
The condition of Ukrainian winter grain crops had not improved over the last three weeks and more than a third of the wheat crop remained at risk.
The county’s overall grain harvest is likely to fall 10 percent to 52.2 million tonnes in 2016 due to the sharp decrease in winter wheat output.
A severe drought during the summer and autumn affecting half of Ukraine’s grain region forced farmers to halt winter grain sowing, leading to fears of a poor harvest in 2016.
The consultancy said a smaller wheat area could be compensated with a larger area sown to corn and sunflower this spring. UkrAgroConsult forecast that the 2016 corn output could rise to 24.5 million tonnes from 23 million tonnes last year.
The harvest figures from analysts traditionally differ from official data published by the agriculture ministry.
According to the ministry, in 2015 Ukraine harvested a total of 59.9 million tonnes of grain, including 26.5 million tonnes of wheat and 23.2 million tonnes of corn.
