Ukraine’s barley crop to fall to a five-year low

Spring barley planting in Ukraine is drawing to an end, and the forecasts about its shortfall are coming true.

As UkrAgroConsult expected, the late start of planting and its tight time limits due to the abrupt temperature increase may prevent Ukrainian farmers from sowing as much spring barley as projected. Still, despite this year’s rapid pace of barley sowing (growers planted as large area for 4 weeks as for 7 weeks last year), it ended in a similarly rapid manner due to intensive warmth buildup and the need to sow late spring crops.

By the weekend, the plan for spring barley sowing in Ukraine was fulfilled by a bit more than 90%. We expect some percent of area will not be seeded.

Thus, according to our forecast, Ukraine’s total barley acreage for the 2018 harvest will shrink. UkrAgroConsult forecasts Ukraine’s 2018 barley crop at the lowest in at least five years.

Full version of the article is available to subscribers for weekly market report “Black Sea Grain” and “Online market review” by UkrAgroConsult.

UkrAgroConsult notes that according to the latest data, as of May 7, planting of early grain crops was almost. 2.2Ml ha (92%) had been seeded to early spring cereals compared to 2.3 Ml ha in 2017. 1.46 Ml ha of spring barley had been sown, 6% less than in 2017.

It is planned to seed 7.38 Ml ha of total spring crops. This level is 2% more compared to last year.

IC UAC