Ukrainian farmers have almost completed the sowing of winter rapeseed for the 2018 harvest as of September 12, seeding a 94 percent area from the expected 777,000 hectares, the agriculture ministry said on Wednesday. Farmers have also sown 503,000 hectares of winter wheat, 12,000 hectares of winter barley and 20,000 hectares of rye, the ministry said.
The area under winter wheat was likely to total 6.1 million hectares, while the area of winter barley could reach 926,000 hectares, the ministry said. Winter wheat accounts for around 95 percent of Ukraine's total wheat area, while the share of winter barley reaches around 60 percent.
Last year, Ukrainian farmers sowed around 8 million hectares of all winter grains. The ministry said Ukraine's 2017 grain harvest was 68 percent complete at 38 million tonnes. The yield averages 3.84 tonnes per hectare. Ukraine has already completed its harvest of wheat, barley and other early grains and cereals.
Farmers have also harvested 230,000 tonnes of maize from 54,000 hectares and have started the sunseed and sugar beet harvest. The 2017 grain harvest could total 61-63 million tonnes, allowing exports of up to 45 million tonnes of various grains in the 2017/18 season, Ukraine's acting agriculture minister Maksim Martyniuk told Reuters last week.