Miller Magazine Issue: 136 April 2021

24 MILLER / aprıl 2021 NEWS Most Ukrainian winter grain crops are in excellent con- dition thanks to favourable weather that could lift the 2021 harvest to a record high above 75 million tonnes, a senior government official said. “We understand that the weather will affect the volume, but as of now... if we do not predict any force majeure, we see a very positive re- sult,” Taras Vysotskiy, deputy economy minister in charge of agriculture, told Reuters. He said the volume could in- clude 29-30 million tonnes of wheat, 9.5 million tonnes of barley and at least 34 million tonnes of corn. The former Soviet republic harvested around 65 mil- lion tonnes of grain in 2020, including 25.1 million tonnes of wheat, 30.3 million tonnes of corn and 7.76 million tonnes of barley. Ukraine is the world’s fourth-largest corn exporter, the top shipper of sunflower oil and a ma- jor supplier of wheat. Vysotskiy said a jump in volume could allow Ukraine to boost export shipments to 50-53 million tonnes in the 2021/22 July-June season from 45.4 million tonnes ex- pected for the current season. He said the export volume might include 21-22 million tonnes of wheat compared with 17.5 million tonnes in 2020/21.He added that the share of milling wheat in the 2021 output could be no less than 65%, almost the same as in 2020. Vysotskiy said a bumper harvest and stable domestic consumption would make any strict export restrictions unnecessary, even taking into account the curbs im- posed by neighbouring Russia. Russia doubled its wheat export tax to 50 euros ($60) per tonne in an attempt to curb high food price inflation amid the coronavirus pandemic. The excellent condition of winter wheat and no need to re-sow damaged areas of winter crops will lead to a slight reduction in the sowing area of sunflower and in its harvest, Vysotskiy said. Ukraine, the world's largest sunflower oil exporter, is likely to sow 6.1 million hect- ares of sunflower and the harvest could total 13.5 mil- lion tonnes, he said. The country harvested 14.3 million tonnes of sunseed in 2020, according to analysts. He said that despite a recent increase in rapeseed pric- es, Ukraine was likely to keep the area under the crop unchanged around 1 million hectares. Ukraine plants mostly winter rapeseed and the increase is possible only for the 2022 harvest, he said. Ukraine may har- vest up to 2.7 million tonnes of rapeseed and 3.1 million tonnes of soybeans in 2021. Ukraine expects record 2021 grain crop