KYIV, Feb 13 (Reuters) - Farmers in Ukraine, a major global corn grower and exporter, are expected to reduce the area sown with corn by 9% year-on-year in 2024, a survey compiled by the country's agriculture ministry showed on Tuesday.
The survey, released to Reuters before its official publication by the ministry, said the overall spring sowing area could fall by about 500,000 hectares this year, or by 3.7%.
The survey showed the fall in corn area could be partly offset by an increase in the area sown with sugar beet, rapeseed and soybeans.
"70% of respondents said they plan to increase the area under soybeans. As for sugar beet, 60% of those who planted the crop last season are going to expand the area slightly, by 17% in Ukraine as a whole," the survey said.
Producers are still considering the area to sow with sunflowers.
Ukraine has harvested 28.15 million metric tons of corn from the 2023 crop, but about 2 million tons remain in an unharvested 320,000 hectares in several Ukrainian regions.
Agriculture minister Mykola Solsky told Reuters last week the ministry expected the 2024 spring sowing area would be the same as last year, though it could see a slight decrease in the worst case scenario.
Ukraine is a major global grain and oilseeds producer but its harvests have decreased since Russia invaded and occupied significant swathes of territory. The war, now in its 24th month and with no end in sight, has driven up global grain prices and disrupted supplies, especially to poorer countries.
Ukrainian farmers sowed a total of 12.75 million hectares of spring crops for the 2023 harvest, including 5.7 million hectares of various grains. (Reporting by Pavel Polityuk Editing by Kirsten Donovan and Mark Potter)
