Ukraine Harvest Estimates

Ukrainian farmers are expected to be halfway through harvesting by the weekend, but estimates as to the size of the final grain crop this year still differ quite widely.

Final output forecasts are like your eighty year old gran's driving, all over the shop.

The Agriculture Ministry seem to be standing by their estimate of 42-43 MMT (vs 53.5 MMT in 2008), which will include around 20 MMT of wheat, with corn output in the region of 11 MMT and barley around 10 MMT, they say.

Dmitri Berezovski, the President of Agrarian Chamber of Ukraine, says that the harvest will only produce 35 MMT of grain this season.

According to his forecast, although the harvest will be substantially less than last year, quality will be 25-30% higher. About 40-45% of the wheat harvest (7-8 MMT) will make milling wheat standard this year, he says. Last year only 29% of the wheat crop was up to milling standard.

Sergei Stoyanov, Director General of the Ukrainian Agrarian Confederation, says that this season's wheat crop will total around 20 MMT, but has the barley crop 4 MMT higher than the Ministry at 14 MMT.