UKRAINE (20 September)
Cereal harvesting in the Ukraine is almost complete and aggregate harvest is tentatively estimated at about 36.2 million tonnes, which is more than 16 million tonnes up on last year’s drought reduced harvest but more than 2 million tonnes down on the good harvest in 2001. Late frost in April has damaged more than one million hectares of winter cereals, while late spring planting following unusually cold and inadequate soil moisture during early spring reduced yields. In addition, late summer precipitation significantly compromised maize yields. This year’s cereal harvest includes some 17.5 million tonnes of wheat, 9.8 million tonnes of barley and 6 million tonnes of maize.
Aggregate cereal exports are tentatively forecast at more than 8.3 million tonnes during the 2004/05 marketing year. Last year the Ukraine, for the first time in the past decade, became a net cereal importer with imports totalling some 3.8 million tonnes following crop failure in 2003/04.