Ukraine drought may affect global grain price
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E-mail Xinhua, August 10, 2012
NO CRITICAL PROBLEMS
The severe drought has revived memories about Ukraine's grain crisis in 2010, when the country lifted restrictions on wheat and barley exports. However, the local agricultural experts stressed that the scale of these two events can not be compared, saying that this year's drought will not greatly affect the total yield in Ukraine.
"We will have a quite normal harvest this year. The drought has affected harvest in southeastern and eastern regions, while both the western and northern regions will have a very good yield, because there was enough moisture," said Tetyana Adamenko, head of the state weather forecasting center's agricultural department.
Adamenko did not specify the total damage to crops, but told Xinhua that nearly a half of Ukraine's sown areas have suffered from an abnormally hot weather.
Adamenko said that the drought will have a negative effect on the yield of potatoes and sugar beets, as well as maize, adding that the heat wave has a very little impact on cereal crops that have already ripened.
High temperatures may even positively affect the grain yield, the expert said.
"The quality of grain this year will be very good due to high temperature and moisture conditions. The grain will have a lot of protein because of dry weather during the ripening. A high-protein grain has a very high quality. Ukraine will have very little feed grain this year," Adamenko said.
She said that Ukraine's state weather forecasting center expected the country's overall harvest at around 43 million tons compared with the government's estimate of 45.3 million tons.
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