Last week, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said the country must sow as many crops as possible this spring, despite the Russian invasion,

"This spring, as much as any spring, we must make a full-fledged sowing campaign. As much as possible," Zelensky said in a statement.

However, uncertainty still surrounds the country’s spring planting prospects. The country’s agricultural producers’ union said a reduced area of sunflower seed, rapeseed and maize is likely this year. The group added that these crops’ are being replaced with buckwheat, oats and millet.

Prior to the conflict (1 February), UkrAgroConsult estimated the Ukraine maize area at 5.475m hectares, but it remains to be seen how much of this is realised.

On Saturday however, the Ukrainian government announced a ban on fertiliser exports on top of the introduction of licences on key export goods, including wheat and maize.

USDA

The USDA revised downwards Ukrainian and Russian exports this season, back 7m tonnes (Mt) to 52Mt for wheat.

Estimated Ukrainian maize exports were reduced by 6.0Mt, to 27.5Mt. These revisions were seen by many as modest, however.

Russia is slowly starting to resume wheat exports, although the current sanctions in place could prove to be a major limiting factor on volumes.

France

While the USDA kept EU wheat exports the same as February estimates, FranceAgriMer sharply increased its French wheat export forecasts, according to the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB).

This is in anticipation that they would replace a proportion of lost Black Sea supply. The organisation pegged the number at 9.7Mt, up 0.8Mt from the previous month.