Ukraine is one of the biggest wheat, corn and sunflower oil exporters in the world, but drought has hit the country’s production hard this year.
Between January and July 2025, agricultural production was 18.5 percent lower than the same period last year, according to official data, which was reviewed by Kárpáti Igaz Szó.
Estimates indicate that up to 500,000 hectares of production were destroyed through drought, according to the deputy chairman of the VAR (All-Ukrainian Agrarian Council), Denys Marchuk.
The decrease mostly hit crop production, which fell to 74.5 percent compared to last year’s production — so far.
Meanwhile, animal husbandry was less hard hit, remaining at 95.3 percent of production.
The greatest losses were seen on agricultural enterprises, which include large-scale monocrop producers, which fell to 77.7 percent of production.
However, backyard farms, which many Ukrainians have, fell only to 89.7 percent, meaning individual and hobbyist producers were less hard hit.
Certain areas saw dramatically reduced production, including Donetsk, which met only 47.8 percent of its production figures compared to last year, and Khmelnytskyi, which saw only 46.3 percent of its 2024 production.
However, there is still some hope that Ukraine may break even compared to last year, depending on how weather and production develop over the coming weeks.
“Compared to last year, this season we are about two weeks behind in terms of harvest due to weather conditions — both drought and significant precipitation in July. Despite crop losses in some regions, in other regions the yield indicators are higher, which gives reason to hope for a harvest no worse than last year, about 56 million tons, of which at least 40 million tons can be exported,” Marchuk, noted.
Other areas fared better, and some even exceeded 2024’s production levels, including Zaporizhia, Zakarpattia and Odessa.
The best result was seen in the Mykolaiv region, which produced 106.7 percent of its production compared to last year.
According to official statistical data, the overall volume of agricultural production in Ukraine between January and July 2025 was 18.5 percent lower than the same period last year.
Ukraine is considered one of the major breadbaskets of the world, and many of its crops help feed nations in Africa, the Middle East and beyond.
During the spring of 2025 and the early summer, many parts of Europe experienced the worst drought conditions in decades. Germany, for instance, was especially hard hit. A number of EU countries saw crop yields decline significantly.
