Ukraine’s Wheat Harvest Set to Surge

Ukraine’s wheat harvest may jump by 43 percent from a year earlier as crops escaped damage from cold weather this winter, a unit of the U.S. Department of Agriculture said. Corn output also will increase.

Wheat production may be 22.6 million metric tons in the 2013-14 season that begins July 1, up from 15.76 million tons a year earlier, the USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service said in a report posted on its website yesterday. Exports may jump almost 70 percent from a year earlier to 11 million tons.

Rising output is "mainly due to favorable weather and excellent winter crop conditions," the FAS said. "Winter wheat was reported to have sustained minimal losses of under 5 percent country-wide."

Corn production was pegged at 22 million tons, up 5 percent from a year earlier, while exports may increase 13 percent to 14 million tons. Recent cold, wet weather has delayed planting of spring barley, so farmers may switch acres to corn, which is sown later. Ukraine’s barley production was estimated at 7.4 million tons, up 6.7 percent from a year earlier.

Ukraine was the world’s fourth-biggest corn exporter in the 2012-13 season, after the U.S., Brazil and Argentina, according to the USDA. It ranked sixth for wheat shipments.

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