The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) has released an updated forecast for the world balance of major agricultural crops for the 2024-2025 marketing year, which indicates that Ukrainian wheat and corn production is increasing. This was reported by the Ukrainian Agrarian Business Club.

According to the new USDA forecast, wheat production in Ukraine will increase by 0.5 million tons, reaching 23.4 million tons, and corn production will increase by 0.3 million tons, reaching 26.8 million tons. However, export volumes remain at the same level: 15.5 million tons of wheat and 22.0 million tons of corn. At the same time, analysts note that trade volumes on the world market will decrease, and ending stocks of these crops will increase.

The updated forecast also shows an increase in world wheat production by 3.4 million tonnes to 797.2 million tonnes. This increase is due to increased wheat production in Australia, Argentina and Ukraine. However, the forecast for world wheat trade has decreased by 0.9 million tonnes to 208.1 million tonnes due to reduced exports from the European Union (27.0 million tonnes), Russia (45.0 million tonnes) and the United States (22.7 million tonnes).

As for maize, world production for the 2024-2025 marketing year will increase by 1.7 million tonnes to 1,214.2 million tonnes. However, despite increased production in India, Russia and Ukraine, including an increase in Ukraine to 26.8 million tonnes, the forecasts indicate a reduction in the volume of maize trade on the world market. In particular, maize exports from Brazil will decrease by 2.0 million tonnes to 44.0 million tonnes, and from South Africa by 0.9 million tonnes to 1.7 million tonnes.

Overall, the forecast for world ending corn stocks for 2024-2025 also indicates a decrease of 1.4 million tons to 288.9 million tons. This situation indicates a decrease in available stocks on the world market, which may affect the prices and availability of corn on international markets.

Thus, the new USDA forecasts emphasize the importance of Ukraine as one of the main producers of wheat and corn in the world, and also indicate global changes in the production and trade of these crops in the 2024-2025 marketing year.