Iurii Mykhailov

Country's acreage estimates not as trustworthy as USDA's.

Soon it will be a year since Russia annexed the Crimea and provoked separatist actions in South-Eastern Ukraine that later had overgrown, in fact, into the war between Ukraine and Russia (though de facto, not de jure).

Currently, the military conflict after months of not very active military confrontation has the potential to break into a full-scale war with the invasion of Russian troops on the territory of Ukraine. The consequences of this would be disastrous not only for each of the warring parties, but also to the whole world.

The total amount of the manure spread was more than 6,000 metric tons.

Will Ukraine survive? It depends on which economy collapses first: Ukrainian or Russian.

Grain production in the Black Sea region is determined by three principal players: Russia, Ukraine, and Kazakhstan. Grain production in these three countries (as well as exports) is practically stable. In 2013-2014, the three nations produced 38.6 million

In Ukraine, this year’s total grain crop is a record 64 million metric tons. Because of the annexation of Crimea and part of the Lugansk and Donetsk oblasts by Russia, the actual available crop is about 60.5 mmt.

In the middle of October, the grain export from Ukraine reached 11 mmt (6.2 mmt of wheat, mainly of the feed quality, 1.3 mmt of corn, 3.2 mmt of barley and 150 tmt of other small grains. This means that the total grain export from Ukraine, this marketing year, may be about 35 mmt.