Ukraine: Barley harvest could see significant losses due to adverse weather

Adverse weather conditions in Ukraine's key grain producing regions could lead to significant losses in its barley and wheat harvests, the APK-Inform agriculture consultancy said on July 5.

Ukraine has already started its 2021 grain harvest and expects an all-time high crop of around 76 million tonnes.

According to weather forecasters, in the first days of July, torrential rains were recorded in the Odessa, Mykolayiv, Kherson, Zaporizhshya, Dnipropetrovsk and Donetsk regions.

"As a result of heavy rains ... local flooding and lodging of early grain crops are recorded, which significantly complicates harvesting and can lead to an increase in grain losses," the consultancy said.

APK-Inform says 3.2 million hectares of wheat and 1.4 million hectares of barley are concentrated in the affected regions which is 46% and 57% of the total sown area of these crops in the country.

It said forecasters had predicted a "high probability of adverse weather conditions with significant precipitation" in the coming days and this could increase the risks of losses for early grain crops.