Ukraine: Spring barley area drops 17% in 2007

The Ukraine is a key exporter of barley (the second largest in recent years after Australia) could see its spring barley area drop by 17% to 4.0Mha in 2007, from last year's record area of 4.84Mha, according the Ministry of Agriculture.

The increase of 1Mha to 6.9Mha in winter plantings for harvest 2007 appears to be the main reason that springs grain sowings, which started in the south of the country earlier this month, are expected to be lower than in 2006. The opposite was observed last season with a drop in winter cereal area offset by an increase in spring plantings.

Ukraine aims to produce 38Mt of cereals for harvest 2007, up 11% from the 34.25Mt produced in 2006. The total production would be made up of 17.8Mt of wheat (13.95Mt in 2006), 9.8Mt of barley (11.34Mt), 7.2Mt of maize (6.42MT), 0.71Mt of rye (0.58Mt) and 2.5Mt of other cereals (1.96Mt).

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