KIEV/MOSCOW (Reuters) – Continued dry weather could hurt winter grain planting in Ukraine and result in less sown acreage in Russia, analysts and forecasters said on Wednesday.
Farmers in Russia, the world’s biggest wheat exporter, have sowed winter grain on 17.5 million hectares for next year’s crop, down from 18.2 million hectares around the same date a year ago, the Ministry of Agriculture said. Agriculture.
Ukraine, also among the world’s largest grain exporters, had planted 6.5 million hectares of winter crops, mainly winter wheat, as of 25 October, representing 83% of the expected area.
Russia is also likely to start the winter with less fertilizer use in some regions due to higher global crop nutrient prices, said Dmitry Rylko of agricultural consultancy IKAR.
However, weather conditions in most areas are more beneficial than a year ago, Rylko said, adding that the decline in seeding could be offset by a large planting area in southern Russia, where seeding is proceeding at a steady pace. record.
There is no publicly available data for just winter wheat, which typically accounts for 70% of the Russian crop.
“The Black Sea wheat belt has been unusually dry in recent weeks,” said Andrey Sizov of Sovecon, another consultancy. “Many regions received only 30% to 60% of normal rainfall.”
(Reporting by Polina Devitt in Moscow and Pavel Polityuk in Kiev)
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