By KYIV. Dec 6 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Ukrainian farmers have grown 81 million tonnes of gross grain harvest this year, which amounted to 5-6% of world production, Mykola Horbachev, president of the Ukrainian Grain Association (UGA), said.
“Ukraine is located on such soils that we depend on weather factors more than on technology. Although technology in Ukraine has advanced over the last 20-30 years, and we, having previously grown 30 million tonnes, began to grow 100 million tonnes. This year we were lucky with the weather – yields for all crops were above average. We received, one might say, record yields for each crop,” he said during Business Breakfast with Forbes Ukraine on Wednesday.
According to the UGA president, this allowed the country to compensate for the loss of 6 million hectares of arable land, which is currently under occupation, as well as on the front line and is not cultivated by farmers.
“More than 2.5 billion tonnes of grain are produced in the world, of which Ukraine grew more than 80 million tonnes this year. If we take grain trade in absolute figures, Ukraine occupies about 5-6%. This is a serious impact (on the world market),” Horbachev emphasized, clarifying at the same time that this share of grain production does not allow Ukraine to control the world market.
He recalled that farmers do not depend on the volume of products produced, but on their prices, and expressed hope that in the 2023-2024 marketing year, world prices will even out and Ukrainian agricultural producers will not be at a loss.
