Ukraine: Corn production will decline in 20/21, which is controversial to the record of sown areas

Despite the fact that the sown areas under corn reached a record figure of 5.5 million hectares, the yield will decrease to 31.8 million tons. This is due to weather conditions in August and September this year, which were accompanied by droughts in the main production regions. Accordingly, due to a decrease in corn production, exports volumes are expected to decrease to 25.2 million tons (decrease by 12%).

Over the past 10 years, from 2009/2010 to 2019/2020, the gross corn harvest has grown from 10.5 million tons to a record 35.9 million tons (almost by 3.5 times). This was facilitated by both an increase in sown areas and an increase in corn yields. If we consider the production over a long period, then it fluctuates. Nevertheless, it maintains an upward trend.
In 2020/2021, a decrease in corn production by 4.1 million tons is expected compared to 2019/2020, but this is not serious, since, for example, during the 2017/2018, the grain harvest amounted only 24.7 million tons.

The export of corn from Ukraine has also been constantly growing over the past 10 years, with an average annual growth rate of 30%. In the previous season (2019/2020), 28.7 million tons (80% of the total corn production) were exported, which is only 4% less than the record that was in 2018/2019 (30 million tons), and almost 6 times more than it was exported in 2009/2010 (5.1 million tons).