Ukraine officially finishes spring planting, starts barley harvesting

Ukrainian farmers have officially finished the spring sowing campaign and started the harvest of winter barley some two weeks earlier than last year, an official notice showed Friday.

The harvest traditionally starts in the south of the country, in the Izmail region, with the first 7,000 ha completed and first yields standing at 2.10 mt/ha, delivering 14,700 mt harvested.

The yield is significantly lower compared to the first results shown in 2021 when it came in at 3.66 mt/ha.

Meanwhile, total winter grain planting was complete on 7.6 million ha, including 6.5 million ha planted with winter wheat, 1.4 million ha with rapeseeds and 969,000 mt with barley.

But the harvested areas are expected to drop by at least 20% as that’s the share of the area within the currently occupied regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, and Kherson.

It also comes as the spring planting campaign has officially finished with a 21% drop in planted fields compared to last year and equating to 95% of the revised planned area, as part of the territories remain occupied by Russian forces or are close to regions where active fighting continues.

Ukraine has now finished planting on 13.4 million ha, including 4.7 million ha under sunflower seeds,  4.6 million ha under corn, 1.2 million ha planted with soybeans, 0.95 million ha with spring barley, 191,100 ha with spring wheat and finally 34,100 mt with spring rapeseed.