By KYIV. Oct 26 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food predicts that Ukrainian farmers will sow 5-7% less winter crops than last year, and exports via the sea corridor will reach 1 million tonnes by the end of October, First Deputy Minister of Agrarian Policy Taras Vysotsky said during the national telethon.
“We see today that rains and precipitation have resumed [after the soil drought in September. This gives a positive signal for the sowing of winter crops. We predict that the sowing of winter grains will be less than last year. It looks like this decrease will be somewhere around 5-7%, no more,” he said.
Speaking about agricultural exports through the sea corridor, Vysotsky said that the situation is improving.
“If you look at the indicators of the first half of October, that is [already exported] 700,000 tonnes, and there is hope that by the end of the month there could be one million or more. However, so far this, unfortunately, is less than exported along the grain corridor,” the deputy minister said.
Vysotsky recalled that in different months of the grain corridor operation, an average of 2 million tonnes of agricultural goods or more were exported through this export channel.
“We are on the way to achieving similar indicators, and perhaps even better, than we had during the grain corridor. However, this will take some more time,” the deputy minister concluded.
