Ukrainian rye. Opening of new markets to recover production?

Despite a significant reduction of planted area, Ukraine is still among the five largest world producers of rye. While in the 1990s, rye acreage in Ukraine was on average 1 ml ha, recently it has decreased considerably. The largest area since 1991 was seeded in 1995 – around 1155 Th ha. Nevertheless, by 2019, the rye area had been reduced to 117 Th ha, reports UkrAgroConsult.

Ukrainian farmers focused of producing the basic grain crops, which were in stronger demand both in Ukraine and abroad. That was the main reason for rye acreage reduction.

However, in the past 2018/19 season, the rye market also showed a significant increase in exports. Over the season, Ukraine exported more than 88 KMT of rye that was 130% more than exported a season before, and was the best export result over the past 15 years.

The European Union is the main market for Ukrainian rye. In the 2018/19 season, the EU countries took more than 61% of all Ukrainian rye exports. Moreover, the Philippines purchased 15.25 KMT of rye from Ukraine, Bangladesh – 9.37 KMT, Israel – 6.59 KMT.

UkrAgroConsult estimates that rye production in Ukraine will decrease, that will also support prices.