News
09.09.2009
Ukraine starts harvesting sugar beets and sunflowers
Ukrainian farms have harvested sunflowers from the first 100,000 hectares and sugar beets from 1,000 hectares as of September 4, Agriculture Minister Yuriy Melnyk has said.
He said that farmers had threshed nearly 110,000 tons of sunflower seeds this year, compared to 205,000 tons harvested last year.
He said that the average yield of this crop in Ukraine was ten centners per hectare. He expressed hope that the yield would grow during the harvesting campaign.
Melnyk said that in some regions, the sunflower yield significantly exceeded the average yield in Ukraine, particularly it was 18.3 centners per hectare in Vinnytsia region, 19.3 centners per hectare in Kyiv region, 20 centners per hectare in Poltava region, and 24 centners per hectare in Cherkasy region.
He also said that farmers had harvested 24,000 tons of sugar beets, with the average yield being nearly 250 centners per hectare.
The Agriculture Ministry predicted that Ukraine would harvest 12 million tons of sugar beets in 2009 (13.7 million tons in 2008), and over six million tons of sunflowers seeds (6.52 million tons in 2008).
UKRINFORM
