Rains in Ukraine delay sowing and harvesting, slowing exports

Prolonged rainfall, especially in the western regions of Ukraine, is delaying the sowing of winter wheat and the harvesting of sunflower and soybeans, which is forcing farmers to restrain sales and raising prices for Ukrainian agricultural products. According to the Ministry of Economy, as of October 9, 33 million tons of new crop grain were harvested from 67% of threshed areas in Ukraine, in particular, 3.4 million tons of corn were threshed from 15% of the areas with a yield of 5.4 tons/hectare, although a year ago at this time 10.6 million tons were threshed from 48% of the areas with a yield of 5.58 tons/hectare.

 

The harvest of oilseeds is also delayed, and so far the following has been harvested:

• soybeans - 2.7 million tons from 56% of the area with a yield of 2.28 tons/ha (last year, 4.8 million tons were threshed from 80% of the area with a yield of 2.29 tons/ha),
• sunflower - 6.3 million tons from 66.8% of the area with a yield of 1.85 tons/ha (last year, 8.8 million tons were threshed from 87% of the area with a yield of 2.05 tons/ha),
• rapeseed - 3.3 million tons (threshing completed) with a yield of 2.6 tons/ha (last year 3.5 million tons with a yield of 2.76 tons/ha).

 

3.4 million tons of sugar beets were harvested from 35% of the area with a yield of 49.8 tons/hectare.

 

As of October 7, 2025, Ukrainian farmers had sown 3,557.0 million hectares with winter crops, which is almost 50% of the projected area.

 

So, on the specified date, winter crops were sown:

• wheat – 2,346.8 thousand hectares;
• barley – 179.2 thousand hectares;
• rye – 45.7 thousand hectares;
• rapeseed - 985.3 thousand hectares.

 

In the 2025/26 MY (as of October 10), Ukraine exported 7.19 million tons of grain and leguminous crops, of which 511 thousand tons were in October, while last year as of October 11, 11.739 million tons of grain were exported, in particular, 1.291 million tons in October.

 

By crop, the following were exported in the current season:

• wheat – 5.12 million tons (in 2024/25 MY – 6.798 million tons);
• barley – 939 thousand tons (1.551 million tons);
• rye – 0.2 thousand tons (10.5 thousand tons);
• corn – 974 thousand tons (3.12 million tons).