UK winter rapeseed sowing will be down by 10% year on year according to Origin Enterprises. This decline is 4% bigger than the recent forecast by the Andersons Centre released two weeks ago, and marks the lowest area of planting in six years. The Andersons Centre noted lower planting based on poorer price prospects, and challenges posed by pests after the EU banned the use of neonicotinoid pesticides some believe to be associated with bee die-off. Origins Enterprises states that the drop in sowing is due to challenging agronomic conditions and farmers switching to growing cereals instead; estimating that winter wheat sowing will reach 1.95 million hectares, a minor decline of 2% – 3%, far outpacing the Andersons Centre’s estimate of 1.83 million hectares. Origin Enterprises, which is active in the agronomy sector in both Ukraine and Poland, warns of the effects upon Ukraine’s ag sector as farmers deal with ongoing unrest causing the hryvnia to fall by 55% against the dollar to a ratio of 15:1. As a result, farmer investments into production for 2015 are expected to be lower as planted area remaining steady at 20 million hectares. In Poland, the EU’s third biggest grain producing country after France and Germany, winter cereal acreage is expected to be 6 million hectares as ideal conditions indicate a strong beginning to the season.
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