Ukraine achieves record grain harvest in 2016 calendar year
17 January 2017
Ukraine harvested 66 mmt of grains in the 2016 calendar year, which is a 9.8% increase yoy and an all-time record, the Agrarian Ministry said on January 16. Record harvest yields were reported for wheat at 4.2 tons per hectare and corn at 6.6 tons per hectare. Ukraine harvested 26 mmt of wheat, 28 mmt of corn, 13.9 mmt of sugar beet, and 13.6 mmt of sunflower seed. The Agrarian Ministry said it expects Ukrainian grain exports to reach 41.6 mmt the during 2016/2017 marketing year (vs. 39 mmt last year).
Igor Zholonkivskyi: The record harvest will benefit Ukrainian companies engaged in grain trading and production, such as Kernel (KER PW), Astarta (AST PW), Industrial Milk (IMC PW), Agroton (AGT PW) and KSG Agro (KSG PW). The positive effect will be subdued as global grain prices remain low.
We expect Kernel (KER PW), Ukraine’s largest producer of sunflower oil, will also benefit from ample supply of sunflower seed available for crushing, thus reducing its costs and improving margins in its bulk sunflower oil segment.
