News
11.09.2009
Ministry of Agrarian Policy increases 2009 grain harvest forecast by 3 mln tonnes
Ukraine's Ministry of Agrarian Policy has increased its forecast for the 2009 grain harvest from 42 million-43 million tonnes to 45 million tonnes, Minister Yury Melnik told journalists in Kyiv on Wednesday.
"We hope that by including corn in the [pre-processing] weight the harvest could come to around 45 million tonnes," he said.
He added that by factoring a forecast increase in the harvest, the ministry had also boosted its forecast for grain export in the current agricultural year (July 2009-June 2010) from 17 million tonnes to 18 million tonnes.
In addition, Melnik said that the ministry was holding on to its 2009 forecast for sunflower, which comes to 6 million tonnes. "We are not changing the plan [sunflower harvest]. There are no reasons to change it," he said.
Melnik said that total sunflower sowing covered 4.2 million hectares.
It was earlier reported the Ukraine had harvested 53.3 million tonnes of grain in 2008 and exported 24.7 million tonnes over the previous agricultural year.
From the start of the current agricultural year to September 4, Ukraine had exported 4.281 million tonnes of grain.
Ukraine's agricultural enterprises had harvested sunflower from 109,000 hectares and milled almost 110,000 tonnes in seeds. The average crop yield in Ukraine comes to 10 centners per hectare. In 2008, Ukraine harvested 6.52 million tonnes of sunflower.
lexisnexis.com
