The FINANCIAL — Taking into account the current sunflower sowing areas, in 2009, Ukraine will possibly harvest over 6 mln tons of sunflower seed as opposed to 6.52 mln tons in 2008, declared Yuri Melnik, the Minister of Agrarian Policy, on June 12.
According to him, agrarians increased the sowings compared to the planned areas, including reseeding of lost rapeseed sowings.
As a reminder, the Ministry of Agrarian Policy of Ukraine expected for the growth of sunflower harvest to the level of 6 mln tons due to the rise of yield indices, but not the widening of sunflower sowing areas. In 2009, the government planned to receive 3.45 mln ha of sunflower sowings as opposed to nearly 4.2 mln ha last year.
As of June 5 of the current year, agrarians sowed sunflower throughout 3.92 mln ha or 112% of the planned areas.
Last year, Ukraine harvested the record sunflower crop, up 56.2% compared to 2007 index. According to the State Committee of Statistics, the widening of the harvesting areas by 866.5 thsd ha or 25.4% and the growth of yield by 3 c/ha caused the situation.
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