By Cary Sifferath, USGC Regional Director

I recently spent a week in-country to see how Ukraine is shaping up as a major competitor in world markets. The experience was invaluable and the market analysis informative. Here are the major points.

To reiterate an industry-wide sentiment, Ukraine will continue to be a major competitor, especially in corn. They’ve got the potential to expand production greatly in coming years, and I expect to see corn and soybean plantings expand at the expense of wheat and barley. Case in point, the Ukrainian government plans to increase wheat production using higher yield varieties in order to move more land into corn, sunflower and soybean production.

Interestingly, while GMO corn is technically illegal, it’s being planted widely and its use expanding. We’ve seen that as much as 20 to 80 percent of their corn is GMO once you allow for co-mingling.

Of course, Ukraine’s agricultural sector faces serious challenges. Their production is highly vulnerable to weather patterns, much like the United States, and they’ve got infrastructure issues that will continue to plague their exports until substantial investment is transferred into their transportation systems. Finally, the lack of grain storage was notable and will continue to affect their farmers’ prices.

Ukraine is clearly a rising competitor, and the U.S. Grains Council will continue to closely monitor developments as they affect regional and global demand.