Ukraine expects that the area under wheat in 2024 will be the same as last year, with a slight decrease in the worst case scenario. However, there are concerns about the quality of wheat. This was stated by Agriculture Minister Mykola Solsky to Reuters, according to UNN.
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"I don't expect any drastic changes in terms of planted areas. If the sown area decreases, it will be a very slight decrease," Solsky said in an interview, providing the first official forecast for the 2024 planting season.
For the 2023 harvest, Ukrainian farmers reportedly sowed 12.75 million hectares of spring crops, including 5.7 million hectares of various grains. In particular, 4 million hectares of corn, 5.3 million hectares of sunflower and 1.78 million hectares of soybeans.
Solsky noted that last fall, farmers planted less winter wheat due to bad weather.
"There will definitely be no increase in the total sown area. I admit that it will be reduced, and the question immediately arises: what will we sow? We have only three options - sunflower, soybeans and corn," the minister said.
According to him, farmers will try to increase soybean acreage, but the lack of quality soybean seeds could be a serious obstacle. He also noted that relatively low prices for sunflower seeds and mandatory crop rotation will not allow to increase the area under sunflower in the future.
In 2023, Ukraine harvested about 28.7 million tons of corn, threshing almost 91% of the planted area. Some corn still remains unharvested in the fields.
According to Solsky, the lack of funds caused by the war and difficulties with exports forced farmers to save money and use lower quality wheat seeds.
He noted that winter wheat survived the winter without serious damage, but the quality of the future harvest remains unclear.
"There is one problem - it seems to me that our seeds are getting worse and worse. It seems to me that farmers are saving on winter wheat seeds... and (this) is one of the reasons for the worse quality of wheat," the minister said.