KIEV, April 25 (Reuters) — The condition of Ukrainian winter grains has improved over the last six weeks thanks to warm and wet weather, analyst UkrAgroConsult said.
A severe drought last summer and autumn, affecting half of Ukraine’s grain region, forced farmers to halt winter grain sowing, leading to concerns of a poor harvest in 2016.
About 99 percent of the winter wheat area sown for the 2016 harvest had sprouted as of the end of April, the consultancy said.
The share of sprouted winter wheat crops in good condition accounted for 42.5 percent of the total as of April 21, while 37.1 percent of crops were in a satisfactory state and 19.5 percent were in a poor state.
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That is a big improvement from last month when 35 percent of winter wheat crops were in good condition, while the share of crops in a satisfactory state was 35.1 percent, and 29.9 percent of crops were in a poor state.
Ukraine sowed 17.54 million acres of winter grains, including about 14.82 million acres of winter wheat, for the 2016 grain harvest. Winter wheat accounts for around 95 percent of its overall wheat output.
Ukraine harvested 60 million tonnes of grain in 2015, including 26.5 million tonnes of wheat.
Analysts have said wheat output could decrease to around 18 million tonnes this year.
