KIEV, UKRAINE – Ukraine’s grain production and exports are rebounding from last year’s drought-plagued crop, according to data from Ukraine’s ag ministry.

It shows Ukraine exported 5.05 million tonnes of grain in October, raising the four-month total in the 2021-22 marketing season to 19.4 million tonnes, an 18% increase over the same period last year.

The ag ministry projects this year’s export total to reach 61.5 million tonnes, well above the 2020-21 total of 44.7 million tonnes.

Ukraine forecasts this year’s grain production total at 80.5 million tonnes, up from 65.0 million tonnes in the previous marketing year.

The increase in production is led by higher projected wheat and corn output. A recent Global Agricultural Information Network report from the US Department of Agriculture’s Foreign Agricultural Service projects Ukraine’s corn crop at 39.1 million tonnes and sees its wheat production reaching 32.1 million tonnes. Both would be records, if realized.

The projections are in sharp contrast to neighboring Russia which recently revised downward its grain production forecast for 2021-22, including a 10-million-tonne reduction in wheat output.

In an effort to curb food inflation, Russia earlier this year implemented a floating tariff on wheat, barley and corn exports. Ukraine, meanwhile, is not taking measures to curb grain exports.