Rainy and cool weather has slowed sowing of spring crops in Ukraine but was favourable for the development of key winter cereals, most of which are in good or perfect conditions, Ukrainian state weather forecasters said on Wednesday.
Most of Ukraine is subject to extremely variable weather that can have a big impact on planting and harvests.
Ukrainian farmers started spring sowing in late February, but only about 1 million hectares of crops were sown by April 21.
"Agrometeorological conditions ... were generally unfavourable for field work on tillage and sowing of early spring crops," APK-Inform consultancy quoted forecasters as saying.
"At the same time, the conditions for the growth and development of winter and early spring crops were quite favourable, with plants growing and undergoing phase changes in development."
Ukraine traditionally plants winter wheat, which accounts for more than 95% of the total wheat harvest.
Forecasters said that most of the winter wheat crop was in good or perfect condition.
APK-Inform, in its first forecast for the 2023/24 season, said on Tuesday that Ukraine's overall grain harvest could fall by 13% from the previous season to 45.6 million tonnes, including 16.2 million tonnes of wheat, 5.2 million tonnes of barley and 22.9 million tonnes of corn.
The agriculture ministry this month said that the 2023 grain harvest could drop to 44.3 million tonnes from 53.1 million tonnes in 2022 because large parts of Ukrainian territory are occupied by Russian military forces or mined.
Ukraine harvested a record 86 million tonnes of grain in 2021, including 32 million tonnes of wheat, before Russia's invasion of the country.
(Reporting by Pavel Polityuk; Editing by David Goodman)
