Ukraine is poised to sow a staggering 285,000 hectares with spring wheat this year. This substantial figure marks the largest area dedicated to this crop in the past 12 years, the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food reported.

As of mid-May, 247,000 hectares of this crop were sown. Most of them are in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast in central Ukraine.

In 2013, before the beginning of the Russian invasion and temporary occupation of part of the Ukrainian territories, the area sown with spring wheat amounted to more than 160,000 hectares, in 2021 it stood at over 192,000 hectares.

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Due to the full-scale war, there has been a change in the structure of crops, taking into account the cost of expenses per hectare, the possibility of realization for domestic needs, yield, and cost of products, explained Taras Vysotskyi, the first deputy of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy. Wheat, on the other hand, is important for food security and less demanding in terms of intensity and cost.

Despite the increase in the area of spring wheat sowing, their share constitutes only 10% of the total area of production of this crop in Ukraine. Therefore, such an increase does not significantly compensate for the overall reduction of wheat sown areas in the new season, the Ministry of Agrarian Policy emphasized.

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According to the agency's preliminary forecasts, this year the harvest of grain and leguminous crops will amount to 45 million tons, of which more than 16.5 million tons will be wheat.

In December 2022, the Ministry of Agrarian Policy summarized the preliminary results of the 2022 harvest: 46.6 million tons of grain were threshed.

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At the end of March, a sowing campaign began in Ukraine in the government-controlled territories. Sowing of spring crops has started in all regions.

According to the forecast of British intelligence, the war between Russia and Ukraine will affect the growth of world grain prices, which may have serious consequences for the markets.

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