By Pavel Polityuk
KYIV (Reuters) -Ukraine’s economy ministry has increased its projection for the country’s winter wheat sowing area by 9%, the deputy economy minister says, improving prospects for a boost to exports needed to help fund its defence against Russian forces.
The sowing area for the 2026 winter wheat harvest is now expected to be at least 5.2 million hectares, up from a previous estimate in line with 2025 at 4.78 million hectares, Taras Vysotskiy told Reuters on Wednesday.
The increase comes at the expense of corn and sunflower crops that were hit by drought this year and does not include the area for spring wheat, which is usually estimated at 200,000 hectares.
SUNFLOWER CROP DEVASTATED BY DROUGHT
“I think producers will draw conclusions after this year’s situation,” Vysotskiy said, referring to the drought conditions that almost completely destroyed this year’s sunflower crop and severely reduced yields for corn.
“There will be at least 5.2 million hectares (of winter wheat), mainly because in the southern regions farmers may decide not to sow sunflowers and corn after this year’s weather.”
Vysotskiy did not provide a forecast for the 2026 wheat harvest, but Ukraine produced 22.5 million metric tons in 2025. Ukraine exported 15.7 million tons of wheat in the previous 2024/25 July-June season.
Analyst APK-Inform last month cut its sunflower seed harvest forecast for the second time to 12.9 million metric tons, down from a previous projection of 13.6 million tons. It said that 2025 output could be among the lowest in the past 10 years.
Winter wheat is more resilient and can use moisture reserves that enter the soil throughout autumn, winter and spring. It is less reliant on spring rains than many other crops.
Farmers have already begun sowing wheat and had planted 672,000 hectares by September 25.
Vysotskiy also said that the ministry had reduced its winter barley sowing forecast to about 550,000 hectares from 576,000 hectares. He did not specify reasons for the revision.
(Reporting by Pavel PolityukEditing by David Goodman)
