The area Ukraine sows with maize is likely to decrease by up to 7 percent this year due to higher planting costs and a jump in prices of foreign seeds, analysts at UkrAgro Consult said on Tuesday. Ukraine, the world's third-largest maize grower, planted 4.6 million hectares of maize in 2014 and harvested 27.0 million tonnes of the commodity, according to an estimate by the US Department of Agriculture.
"The area planted with maize is likely to fall 5-7 percent. In terms of saving, producers will begin using cheaper seeds produced domestically," UkrAgro Consult said in a report, adding that the share of imported seeds would drop to 40 percent.
About 63 percent of Ukraine's maize fields were seeded with imported seeds in 2014, according to the consultancy.
It said a sharp drop in the Ukrainian hryvnia currency, which has lost more than 65 percent in value against the dollar since the beginning of last year, was the main reason for the fall in seed imports.
"The decline of imports and rising prices for seeds will be one of the reasons for the reduction in areas planted with corn. Rising prices for fuel and fertilisers will be another reason," UkrAgro Consult said.
The consultancy added that the cost of ammonium nitrate, a fertilizer applied usually in spring, had already increased by 140 percent.
The Ukrainian Agriculture Ministry said this month that the cost of this year's spring sowing could rise by about 60 percent but it was still hoped that the size of the sowing area would be on a par with last year.