Ukrainian farmers have sown 5.5 million hectares of winter wheat for the 2018 harvest, or 90 percent of the expected area of 6.15 million hectares, the agriculture ministry said on Friday. Ukraine plans to sow 7.2 million hectares of various winter grains for next year's harvest, including 6.15 million hectares of winter wheat, 926,000 hectares of winter barley and 161,000 hectares of rye, the ministry said in a statement.
Winter wheat accounts for around 95 percent of Ukraine's total wheat area, while the share of winter barley is around 60 percent. The ministry's data show farmers have also sown 633,000 hectares of winter barley and 138,000 hectares of rye.
Farmers have also completed winter rape sowing at 834,000 hectares, versus 771,000 hectares at the same date in 2016.
At the same date a year earlier Ukraine sowed 4.98 million hectares of winter wheat, 413,000 hectares of winter barley and 144,000 hectares of rye.
The ministry also said farms had harvested 47.2 million tonnes of grain from 82 percent of the sown area, or 11.9 million hectares. The yield averages 3.94 tonnes per hectares versus 4.18 tonnes a year earlier.
Ukraine has completed the 2017 wheat harvest, threshing a total of 26.6 million tonnes of the commodity. It also completed the harvest of barley, rye, oats, peas and others minor cereals. Farmers are continuing to thresh maize, harvesting around 9.2 million tonnes of the commodity from 44 percent of the sown area. The yield averaged 4.56 tonnes per hectare, 1.11 tonne less that at the same date in 2016.
Ukraine harvested a record 66 million tonnes of grain in 2016 and exported 43.9 million tonnes in the 2016/17 season, which runs from July to June. This season, Ukraine plans to harvest between 61 and 63 million tonnes of grain and 2017/18 exports could total up to 45 million tonnes.