The mid-July winter grain and oilseed harvest is progressing in eastern Europe, with both Ukraine and Belarus posting early results.
By July 17, 2024, Belarus’ output of winter grain and rapeseed stood at 1.9 million metric tonnes, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Food.
Cereals and legumes lead the output so far at 1.322 million tonnes, while rapeseed follows at 619,000 tonnes.
These are just preliminary results as the winter crop harvest calendar continues up to August, three months before the spring crop harvest.
By August, the former soviet republic will know if it has surpassed the 2023 cereal output, which hit 7.3 million tonnes.
Harvest Progress in Ukraine
In its part, Ukraine, a major Black Sea grain shipper, had by July 12, 2024 reaped 9.5 million tonnes of winter grain and oilseeds.
According to the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food, the harvest area at the reporting time was 2.781 million hectares.
Out of this output and acreage, wheat leads at 5.7 million tonnes from 1.5089 million hectares. Barley follows at 2.4 million tonnes from 642,300 hectares, while peas trail at 260,900 tonnes from 127,300 hectares.
According to the ministry’s predictions, Ukraine’s 2024 grain and legume harvest will most likely post a production decrease of 6.7%, year-on-year. Current forecasts put the 2024 total at 56 million tonnes.
All in all, Ukraine still has surplus from 2023’s grain and oilseed production, which reached 80 million tonnes. This is according to a February 2024 report by Reuters.
Lengthy Winter Crop Duration
As Ukraine and Belarus begin their 2024/25 production and export campaign, they will be handling two back-to-back harvests.
Both countries usually have a lengthy winter crop growth period, which begins October and ends July the following year. Farmers usually grow spring crops around March while winter plants are still lagging in the field. Fittingly, each country’s agricultural fiscal year runs from July to June, according to the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO).
In a word, Belarus’ and Ukraine’s winter grain and oilseed reaping season is underway and both countries have provided early results. To learn more about similar results from previous years’ campaigns, below are additional statistics.
Ukraine and Belarus Winter Grain and Oilseed Statistics
Crop production data in both Ukraine and Belarus indicates yearly production and acreage shifts. In Ukraine’s case, estimates usually come close to actual production. For instance, against an expectation of 79 million tonnes in the 2022/23 harvest, Ukraine produced 80 million tonnes of winter grains and oilseeds. Though impressive, the harvest was less than that of the 2020 harvest whose estimates were 100 million tonnes. A reason for the slowdown was the invasion of Russia in 2022, which captured some key-producing regions. In Belarus’s case, total winter/spring grain and legume crop output reached 7,665,000 tonnes in 2023, 11.9% down from 2022’s. This is per data by the the National Statistical Committee of the Republic of Belarus.
What is the total area of Ukraine’s 2024 winter crops?
Ukraine’s 2024 winter crop planting area reached 5.34 million hectares at the end of the sowing date on October 30, 2023. The wheat area shrunk to 3.73 million hectares out of an expectation of 4.36 million hectares. In 2021, however, before the Russia-Ukraine war, the winter wheat area had stood at 6.1 million hectares, according to FAO. The same case applied to rapeseed, whose area in 2023 was 1.2 million hectares against 2022’s 1.376 million hectares.
What is the total area of Belarus’ 2023 crops for both winter and spring?
According to the National Statistical Committee of the Republic of Belarus, the country’s 2023 acreage of all crops (both winter and spring) reached 5,756,000 hectares. Grain and legumes constituted 40.7% of the area. In comparison, the total crop acreage in 2023 was 99.7% of that of 2022.