How the sowing campaign will go on this year: Mr. Taras Vysotskyi spoke about changes in the structure of cultivated areas

Mr. Taras Vysotskyi, the First Deputy Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine, spoke in the national information telethon «United News» about the upcoming spring sowing campaign, the problems with grain exports and why the food initiative «Grain from Ukraine» supports not only African countries, but also Ukrainian farmers.

According to his opinion, while last year as of February 24, 2022 the agrarians were fully prepared for the sowing campaign, now there is a problem with liquidity, availability of finance, which complicates and slows down the preparation for field work. At the same time, the farmers are strongly intended to work.

"The agrarians will sow on the maximum farming area wherever the security conditions allow. We hope that next year, which will not be easy, we will be able to overcome difficulties confidently with growing enough grain for domestic consumption and export," said Mr. Taras Vysotskyi.

According to the forecast of the First Deputy Minister, some changes are expected in the sowing of crops. Thus, the area under oilseeds such as rapeseed, soybean, sunflower will increase. This is caused by the fact that the cost of one ton of oilseeds is higher, and the cost of logistics per ton is lower. In this way, the farmers will be able to earn more per each hectare. This is a positive factor for farmers as well as macroeconomic performance and is not critical for crop rotation. The production of wheat is expected to decrease, but it will be twice as much as needed for domestic consumption. In addition, the number of crops for domestic market consumption will slightly increase, as it was in 2022 with buckwheat.

Mr. Taras Vysotskyi emphasized that the grain initiative «Grain from Ukraine» made a significant contribution to keep the operation of the Ukrainian agricultural sector.

"As of December 30, 2022 approximately 600 vessels left Ukrainian ports. 16 million tons of agricultural products were exported. At the same time the potential is not fully used due to the reluctance of the aggressor state to actively inspect ships at the Bosporus. In fact, now the passing volume of vessels is three to four times less than the infrastructure capacity of the three major ports of Odesa. Therefore, the negotiations at the highest state level go on with our partners - the UN and Turkey, first of all, in order to resolve this situation. This will provide an opportunity to obtain in time the necessary food for dozens of millions of people. It is also important for the Ukrainian farmers, because it will significantly reduce the cost of logistics, and therefore, Ukrainian farmers will get a better price, they will have more opportunities to sow everything in time in spring," he explained.

The humanitarian food program «Grain from Ukraine», implemented under the auspices of the President of Ukraine Mr. Volodymyr Zelenskyy, will also help Ukrainian farmers to sell their products at the best prices. As Mr. Taras Vysotskyi emphasized, the program exports grain grown exclusively in Ukraine.

IC UAC according to the MAPFU