Climate change has shifted Ukraine’s soybean belt approximately 220 kilometers north over the past decade, ProAgro Group reports.
If Kirovohrad region was previously considered a stable soybean production area, today it is increasingly viewed as a risk zone for achieving consistently high yields.
According to Serhii Ivaniuk, Central Region Agrotechnology Development Manager at LNZ Group, even some central regions such as Cherkasy and Vinnytsia are becoming less favorable for soybean cultivation.
“In Odesa, Mykolaiv, Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Kirovohrad, and Dnipropetrovsk regions, yields under unfavorable moisture conditions dropped to around 1 ton per hectare or even lower, making soybean production unprofitable,” the expert noted.
Ivaniuk explained that soybean is a crop adapted to monsoon-type climates, requiring both heat and sufficient moisture. To realize its genetic yield potential, soybean crops need on average about 4,500 cubic meters of water per hectare.
According to observations by LNZ Group, the highest average soybean yields in 2025 were recorded in western regions of Ukraine:
- Ivano-Frankivsk region — about 3.2 tons per hectare
- Ternopil and Lviv regions — around 2.9 tons per hectare
- Khmelnytskyi region — about 2.8 tons per hectare
Earlier it was reported that high production costs may discourage U.S. farmers from expanding corn acreage in 2026, with part of the land potentially shifting to soybeans due to more favorable price dynamics.
Source: AgroPortal
