22-23 mln ha will be sown in Ukraine this season – forecast by Pavlo Koval

Ukrainian farmers will sow 22–23 million hectares with crops in 2026, if the front line does not change significantly. This opinion was expressed by Pavlo Koval, Director General of the Ukrainian Agrarian Confederation, in an interview with Mind.

He noted that almost 6 million hectares of the indicated area have already been sown with winter crops: 570 thousand hectares of winter barley and 1.1 million hectares of winter rapeseed, about 70 thousand hectares of winter rye and 4.8 million hectares of wheat.

“These figures may still be somewhat revised due to the complexity of collecting information,” the specialist added.

He assured that even in a difficult year, Ukraine will harvest a sufficient harvest for food security and export.

“If we grind 40 centners/hectare (about 20 million tons), and even if half of it is food wheat, that’s almost 9 million tons (and Ukraine needs about 3.5 million tons of it per year). That is, we will have a three-year supply – of course, if the Russians do not once again break the elevators, railway, etc.,” explained Pavlo Koval.

Regarding the spring wedge, the expert is sure that one of the basic crops will be sunflower, as well as corn and soybeans. The amount of spring barley will be insignificant – about 500 thousand hectares (this is the crop that has decreased the most in crops). Sunflower, according to him, remains the most marginal crop per hectare, so its crops will again reach about 5 million hectares.

“Today, we can state that sugar beet crops are decreasing in Ukraine: if in 2023–2024 we sowed 250 thousand hectares, then this marketing year – only 199 thousand hectares. From the harvested crop, we produced 1.72 million tons of sugar, and the domestic market needs about 900 thousand tons. That is, we should export about 800 thousand tons,” Pavlo Koval summed up.

IC UAC according to ukragroconsult