Farmers in Mykolaiv Region Face Collapse in Grain Prices

Farmers in the Mykolaiv region have faced a sharp drop in grain purchase prices amid reduced exports through Black Sea ports. Despite a high harvest, some farms are offered half as much for their produce as at the start of the harvest campaign. Selling grain at current prices has become unprofitable for some producers.

This was reported on October 9 by "Suspilne" with reference to representatives of agricultural enterprises in the region.

According to Nadezhda Ivanova, director of a seed farm, maritime exports of agricultural products have almost come to a halt due to Russian strikes on ports in the Odesa region. Small farms, which do not have their own grain storage facilities, have been hit particularly hard.

Some farmers were forced to sell grain directly from the field at 3,000–4,000 hryvnias per ton. The proceeds are often insufficient to finance the next production cycle, including the purchase of fertilizers, fuel, and preparation for sowing.

Ivanova said she is already hearing from colleagues about their intention to abandon the sowing of winter crops. According to her, small farms find themselves in a situation where the previous harvest cannot be sold at an acceptable price, and there are no funds to grow the next one.

Farmer Alexey Smolyakov reported that this summer his farm harvested the largest grain crop in the last ten years. The average yield exceeded 50 centners per hectare.

At the start of the harvest campaign, traders offered 10,200 to 10,400 hryvnias per ton of grain. However, the farmer did not manage to sell the produce because the farm was busy harvesting. By the end of the harvest, the offered price had roughly halved.

Now the enterprise intends to store the grain in anticipation of better selling conditions.

A similar situation has developed in the agricultural cooperative headed by Lyudmila Golub. According to her, the grain yield on the farm was 18% higher than the average for the previous three years, but purchase prices dropped by about 50%.

At the same time, expenses for diesel fuel, fertilizers, and wages continued to rise. At the end of September, buyers offered the cooperative about 5,000 hryvnias per ton of grain.

"If we sell it at this price, we incur a direct loss," explained Golub.

In her opinion, the price decline began even before the ports stopped operating. After forecasts of a high harvest appeared, traders started offering 25–30% less for grain. Subsequent problems with export logistics further worsened the situation for producers.

The problem extends beyond the Mykolaiv region. According to the Ukrainian Agrarian Confederation, as of September 1, 2026, grain stocks in the country reached 24.6 million tons—about 10 million tons more than a year earlier.

The reduction in exports does not allow timely sale of the accumulated volumes of produce. Small enterprises, which cannot store grain for a long time and wait for prices to recover, remain especially vulnerable.

According to the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food, in September Ukraine exported 2.4 million tons of agricultural products. This is only 46% of the potential supply volume.

Of this amount, 1.4 million tons were grain crops, which corresponds to 38% of potential exports. The remaining volumes consisted of oilseeds, vegetable oils, and meals.

The main burden of exporting produce now falls on Danube ports and railway routes through neighboring European countries. However, their capacity is insufficient to fully replace the Black Sea ports.

In the Mykolaiv region, farmers are already conducting the autumn sowing campaign for the 2027 harvest. At the same time, some farmers are considering reducing sowing areas, since selling the harvested grain at current prices does not allow them to cover production costs.

Based on materials from: Suspilne Mykolaiv, Ukrainian Agrarian Confederation, Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine.