Ukraine spring cereal sowing shows large lag to last year

Spring sowing in Ukraine has been delayed significantly, with just 4,900 ha sown since the end of March due to a cold and wet winter, data from the Ukraine Agricultural Ministry showed Tuesday.

The ministry expects sowing to speed up over the next 10 days as the weather improves, it said in a press conference Tuesday, yet progress is likely to continue to lag.

Sowing was at 1.6 million ha at the same stage last year.

Ukraine is expected to plant 7.4 million ha of spring crops this season, with “early” crops such as spring barley and spring wheat accounting for 2.4 million ha, with the remainder coming from “late” crops such as corn and buckwheat.

The ministry expects the spring wheat acreage this season to hit 182,000 ha, down from 190,000 ha last year, while spring barley acreage will slip to 1.6 million ha from the 1.64 million ha reached last year.

Corn acreage is, however, expected to increase on the year to 4.6 million ha, up from 4.5 million ha last season.

"From now on, a good weather period begins, with warm, clear and windy weather - and most of Ukraine will be ready for mass sowing of early spring cereal crops," Tetyana Adamenko, head of the Ukrainian Department of Agrometeorology, said in a press conference Tuesday.

The ministry added that 88% of the 7.3 million ha of winter cereal crops, of is in “good to excellent” condition.