MOSCOW/KIEV (Reuters) — Warmer and drier than normal autumn weather has speeded up winter seeding in Russia and Ukraine, improving the outlook for next year’s wheat harvest in the Black Sea region.
Russia and Ukraine, major global wheat exporters via the Black Sea, are still planting less area to winter wheat than normal this year because recent favourable weather has not fully offset the earlier delay caused by rain.
However, the loss in acreage is likely to be more modest than initially expected in Russia and would be insignificant in Ukraine.
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Ukrainian farms have finished seeding winter wheat for the 2014 harvest: 15.32 million areas compared to 16.31 million acres a year earlier.
Ukraine originally planned to seed 17.3 million acres for winter wheat this year but later reduced it to 16.31 million acres.
“Our winter crops are in very good condition, thanks to perfect weather,” said Ukrainian agriculture minister Mykola Prysyazhnyuk.
“The harvest (of winter wheat in 2014) could exceed the previously expected 15 million tonnes.”
He described the loss in acreage as “not critical.”
He had previously expected the wheat harvest to be down to 15 million tonnes next year from 22 million tonnes this year.
Winter wheat accounts for more than 90 percent of Ukraine’s overall wheat output.
In Russia, winter grain for the 2014 crop was sown on 35.1 million acres, or 87.3 percent of the planned area as of Nov. 6, compared with 38.55 million acres a year earlier, according to the latest ministry data.
The country has seeded larger areas with winter grain than the ministry estimated. Its most recent forecast stood at 34.6 million acres compared to 40.53 million acres originally planned and down from a total 39.79 million acres last year.
