Ukraine’s late crops harvest may fall by 20-30% in most areas due to drought, report says

Ukraine’s harvest of late crops may decline by 20-30% in central, southern and eastern regions due to extreme heat, state weather forecasters said on Tuesday.

“Starting from the end of June, the development, intensification and spread of air drought began in many parts of Ukraine, which later combined with soil drought and as of 15 July 2024 covered a significant part of the area with late crops,” forecasters said in a report.

They said 30% to 50% of the overall area under late crops could be affected by drought.

Forecasters say that in the first 14 days of July maximum temperatures rose to 33-36 degrees Celsius in the western part of Ukraine and up to 41 degrees in southern regions and were close to the highest temperatures seen in the country since records began.

Forecasters noted that corn was at the most vulnerable stage of development to the effects of extreme temperatures and requires maximum moisture.

“In many areas, due to the rapid decline in productive soil moisture reserves to critical levels and heat stress, there is a persistent wilting and complete cessation of growth, yellowing and drying of leaves, stems, and sometimes plants,” they said.

Analyst ASAP Agri said on Monday that extreme high temperatures in recent weeks and in the near future could also reduce the sunflower harvest in Ukraine this year.

Acting Ukrainian agriculture minister Taras Vysotskiy said at the weekend that the current heatwave would make record corn and sunflower harvests impossible.

Ukraine has not started harvesting sunflower and corn yet.

The county’s major agricultural producers group, Ukrainian Agrarian Council, said on Tuesday that the 2024 combined grain and oilseed harvest could fall to 77 million metric tons from around 82 million in 2023.

Denys Marchuk, the council’s deputy head, told a televised briefing that Ukraine’s 2024/25 July-June grain and oilseed exportable surplus was seen at around 60 million tons, almost the same as the country exported in 2023/24.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Pavel Polityuk; Editing by Susan Fenton)