Ukraine: Ukrainian Ministry of Agriculture changed its forecast of the barley planting area

At the end of March the Ukrainian Ministry of Agriculture changed its forecast of the planting area of "early spring grains", i.e. spring wheat, barley and peas from 7.5 to 5.9 million Ha.

Analysts explained the reduction by the late spring and insufficient time for spring planting. Instead the acres of maize, rapeseed and soybeans may be expanded. The amount of winter kill is still unknown, which will reduce mainly the wheat crop, but to a small extent also winter barley. It becomes doubtful now, whether the Ukraine will harvest a much larger crop than last year's 8,8 million tonnes of barley.

Feed barley exports of the current season, during July/February were 2.634 million tonnes vs. 3.786 million last year.