KIEV: Ukraine plans to raise soybean output by 5 percent to about 4.1 million tonnes this year and hopes to ship some volumes to China, the agriculture ministry said on Monday.
Farmers have increased the area sown with soy sharply in the past two years due to the increased profitability of the crop.
They sowed 2.1 million hectares of soy this year, up from 1.8 million in 2014, a ministry spokeswoman said. Ukraine harvested 2.76 million and 2.41 million tonnes in 2013 and 2012, respectively.
Agriculture Minister Oleksiy Pavlenko said a large Chinese delegation visited Ukrainian soy crushing facilities last month and Kiev hopes it could extend the list of commodities permitted for export to China to include soymeal.
Ukraine exported 86,383 tonnes of soymeal in the 2013/14 season, which runs from September to August. It has exported 156,397 tonnes of the commodity so far this season, according to consultancy UkrAgroConsult.
