Ukraine's Farmers Plant Winter Grains at a Faster Pace

Ukraine’s farmers sowed 497,000 hectares (1.2 million acres) with winter grains, or 6 percent of the planned area, on warm, wet weather, the Agriculture Ministry said.

That compares with 260,000 hectares a year earlier, the ministry, based in the capital, Kiev, said today by e-mail.

Ukraine has planted 452,000 hectares with winter wheat as of today and 7,000 hectares of barley, according to the statement. Winter rapeseed was sown on 841,000 hectares, or 89 percent of the planned area, the ministry said.

The country’s farmers also reaped 861,000 metric tons of corn from 249,000 hectares with an average yield of 3.46 tons per hectare, the ministry said. The yield was 4.76 tons last year, it said.

The country has started harvesting sugar beets. It reaped 291,000 tons of beets, compared with 893,000 tons in 2011. The average yield is 3.5 tons a hectare, comparable with last year, the ministry said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Daryna Krasnolutska in Kiev at dkrasnolutsk@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Balazs Penz at bpenz@bloomberg.net