UKRAINE is set for a substantial year on year drop in wheat production.
After growing 28.3 million tonnes of wheat last year, consultancy ProAgro is tipping a 7.77 per cent fall this year to 26.07m tonnes, based primarily on the back of extreme heat.
The agency this month shaved off 580,000 tonnes off its estimate last month.
The major cause is the heatwave in the breadbasket regions of the south and east of the eastern European nation, which has emerged as one of the globe's leading wheat producers in recent years.
In other areas there will not be the yield losses, but wheat and barley quality may be impacted by heavy rain over the past month, although the rain was beneficial for late sown crops such as corn.
ProAgro had total Ukrainian production at 74.1m tonnes, but the Ukrainian economy ministry warned last month the grain harvest could fall to around 68m tonnes this year due to the poor weather and damage to a significant acreage of winter grain crops.