Which region in Ukraine, in your opinion, is the most agrarian (in terms of production, crop areas, efficiency and other indicators)? The truth is the following: according to a set of criteria, Vinnytsia region is the leading one.
The unique trait of Ukraine is that all of its regions are suitable for farming. However, there are top 5 areas that provide the best result. We are sure that you would never guess some of them.
1. In Dnipropetrovsk region there are 1968 thousand hectares of crop areas. This is the highest index in Ukraine
Most of the crop areas in Ukraine are allocated to wheat, corn and barley. In 2014, cereals have occupied 148 thousand of square kilometers. This is more than the territory of England (130 thousand km2). On the first and second place in terms of crop areas are Dnipropetrovsk and Odessa regions – the two largest regions in Ukraine. Further goes big Kharkiv region as well as smaller Vinnytsia and Kirovohrad regions.
2. 66% of Kirovograd region is allocated to the crop area
This is the highest index in the country. This fact is surprising, considering that the total area of Kirovograd region is 24 588 km2, which stands for only 4.1% of the territory of Ukraine. Let’s compare: the largest region in the country, namely Odessa region, is not included in this rating as its crop areas occupy only 52% of the total territory of the region.
3. In 2014, most of the crop products were produced in Vinnitsa region – 11 039 tons.
Five leading regions in terms of the production of crop products specialize in growing grains and oilseed crops. Ukraine is the leading country in the world in terms of their export. About 70% of the crop areas are allocated to these cultures in Poltava region.
Vinnytsia region, in its turn, ranks third in Ukraine in terms of areas that are used for crops, and first in terms of production of crop produce. This region produces 1/3 of the sugar beet that is grown in the whole country. In 2014, beet occupied the area (3.3 thousand km2) larger than the territory of the Duchy of Luxembourg (2.8 thousand km2).
4. Cherkasy region became the leader in the production of meat in Ukraine, providing 325 thousand tons of this product in 2014
In 2014, there were produced 3,34 million tons of meat in Ukraine. Export took about 1.2% (40 000 tons). The income from the export of meat and by-products amounted to $381 millions. The country produces mainly pork and chicken. The leader in pork production in 2014 became Private Joint Stock Company “APK-Invest” (Donetsk region), the leader in chicken production became “Myronivka poultry farm”.
According to the State Statistics Committee of Ukraine, in terms of the meat production on September 2015 Vinnytsia was the leading region (it produced 316, 8 thousand tons).
5. In 2014, Vinnitsa region produced 852 thousand tons of milk – the highest index in Ukraine
In 2014, 11.23 million tons of milk were produced in Ukraine. Export took 64 thousand tons, which brought an income of $323 millions. Vinnitsa, Poltava, Khmelnytsky, Kyiv and Zhytomyr regions became the leaders in terms of milk production. According to the State Statistics Committee of Ukraine, on September 2015 Vinnytsia region took the leading position here (652 thousand tons).
6. Most of the Ukrainian honey is produced in Donetsk region – 8 thousand tons in 2014
Ukraine takes first position in terms of honey production in Europe and third position in the world. About 400 thousand of beekeepers work in the country. In 2014, they produced 66,52 tons of this product, and exported 36,3 thousand tons. The largest importers became Turkey, Slovakia, the USA, Poland, Germany, France, and Spain. In 2015, new markets in Hungary, China, Azerbaijan were explored. In total, today Ukraine exports honey to 22 countries. The top 5 regions in terms of the honey production are also Zhitomir, Dnipropetrovsk, Mykolaiv and Vinnytsia regions.
Our country is unique because of its “congenital predisposition” to agriculture:
- About 41,5 million hectares are allocated to the needs of Ukrainian agricultural sector, which accounts for 70% of the country’s territory.
- In 2014, Ukraine became 1st in the world in terms of sunflower production, 2nd in terms of barley production, 5th in terms of the cultivation of maize and 8th in terms of soybeans production.
- Ukraine produces as much corn as Canada and South Africa produce together.
- In 2014, for the first time since its independence Ukraine has become the second country in the world in terms of grain crops export.
- Ukraine takes 1st place in the world in terms of the export of sunflower oil, 2nd place in terms of the export of nut, and 3rd place in terms of the export of colza.
- Most of Ukrainian agricultural products are sent to Asia.
- The largest consumers of Ukrainian agricultural products in 2014 were India and Egypt.
Other countries can only dream of our wealth of the resources. However, we are still lagging behind in terms of the technologies. Just imagine the results that our leading regions will be able to produce when we can provide them with the best technical capabilities.