KYIV: All Ukrainian regions have started the 2021 spring grain sowing, seeding a total of 853,260 hectares of wheat, barley, peas and oats as of April 8 or 11% of the expected area, economy ministry data showed on Friday.

The 2021 sowing campaign started a few weeks late due to lingering cold weather in most of the country.

The overall grain area is likely to total 15.5 million hectares in 2021, including 7.6 million hectares of spring grains, the ministry has said.

Farms have sown 625,220 hectares of barley, 132,030 hectares of peas, 53,680 hectares of wheat and 40,840 hectares of oats as of April 8.

The spring sowing area will include 1.388 million hectares of barley, 176,600 hectares of wheat, 5.327 million hectares of corn, 194,050 hectares of oats and 235,400 hectares of peas.

State weather forecasters said last month around 98% of Ukrainian winter wheat crops and 100% of winter barley were in good condition.

The favourable weather could help farmers increase the grain crop to 75 million tonnes this year from 65 million tonnes in 2020.

The ministry said farms had also started the 2021 sunflower sowing with the first seeding of 75,720 hectares. They have also sown 11,470 hectares of sugar beet so far. The ministry has said the area under sunflower could total 6.4 million hectares, soy beans - 1.4 million, sugar beet - 226,900 hectares in 2021.