Ukraine faces slowest winter wheat sowing in 10 years

KYIV: The pace of Ukraine's 2020/21 winter wheat sowing is the slowest for at least last 10 years because of a severe drought and farmers could extend planting even into December, analyst APK-Inform said on Wednesday.

Ukraine's economy ministry issued its first official information on winter sowing late on Tuesday, saying that only 1.5 million hectares, or 25pc, of the expected winter wheat area had been sown as of Sept. 28.

The ministry gave no comparisons with previous seasons.

APK-Inform said farmers had sown 2.9 million hectares by the same date last year and in 2015, with similar weather, farmers had sown 2.8 million hectares of winter wheat by Sept. 28.

Analysts said a very late sowing created risks of a decrease in yields if winter comes while crops are still underdeveloped.

Weather forecasters said this month the weather conditions in Ukraine were the worst in 10 years and only 10pc to 15pc of arable land was suitable for sowing winter crops for the 2021, harvest because of the severe drought.

Ukraine controls about 16pc of global grain exports and sold 57.2 million tonnes of grain abroad in the 2019/20 season.

The government has said exports could decline to 47.4 million tonnes in 2020/21.