Cash curbs and winterkill hit Ukraine grain hopes

Ukraine's grain output will fall this year despite a rise in plantings as rates of winterkill near-double and tight finances dent farm spending on sprays, UkrAgroConsult has said.
Growers will plant an extra 575,000 hectares of grain for this year's harvest, with corn, which is sown in spring, and winter barley and wheat proving particularly popular, the Kiev-based analysis group said.

However, output will fall by a little over 1m tonnes to 43.4m tonnes, thanks in part to a 4.4% drop in yields stemming from "great problems" in farm financing.

"Poor government support for grain production, [a] sharp drop in bank lending, high prices of inputs, prevent many grain growers from application of fertilizers and pesticides," besides curbing machinery purchases, a UkrAgroConsult briefing said.