A satellite-based analysis indicates that nearly 27 million tons of wheat were harvested from Ukraine’s farms this year, but the country won’t reap all of the benefits, SciTechDaily reports. The Russian invasion of Ukraine had fueled widespread concern about the effects on the country’s farming sector. In the early days of the crisis, food security specialists wondered if Ukrainian farmers would be able to harvest the wheat, and barley they had planted the previous fall. They also worried that declining grain exports from Ukraine might throw global markets into turmoil and trigger food shortages continents away.
The NASA Harvest team calculated that farmers harvested 26.6 million tons of wheat in 2022, several million tons higher than expected in leading forecasts.
Slackening global demand for wheat and increased supplies helped stabilize global wheat prices over the summer, explained NASA Harvest advisor and senior research fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) Joseph Glauber. “But this doesn’t mean the food crisis is over,” he said. “International food prices remain high by historical standards, markets remain tight, and high price volatility continues—especially for wheat.”