As of 29 July, farmers in Ukraine harvested close to 27 million tons of grain. This represents a 21 per cent annual increase on 9 million hectares of land, Dragon Capital told investors.
According to KyivPost, this means that 2.95 tons per hectare of grain was yielded on an average, denoting a 22 per cent rise compared to the same period last year.
According to the Ukraine-based investment bank, the volume included 19.6 million tons of wheat, 6.2 million tons of barley and 2.1 million tons of rapeseed.
The Ukrainian Ministry of Agriculture has forecast that 57-59 million tons of grain will be harvested in 2013, showing a 22-26 per cent rise compared to last year. This will mark the highest volume in a period of ten years, Dragon Capital said.
Dragon Bank said: "We are currently more conservative on the 2013 harvest outlook in view of the very dry weather currently being observed in central and southern Ukraine, expecting production of 55.1 million tons (+26 per cent year-on-year). At the same time, we think grain exports in the 2013/14 marketing year could hit 28.6 million tons (+19 per cent year-on-year), above the Agriculture Ministry’s forecast, including 17.7 million tons of corn (+20 per cent year-on-year), 8.2 million tons of wheat (+20 per cent year-on-year) and 2.7 million tons of barley (+15 per cent year-on-year)."
