February 23, 2012

The Agrarian policy and food ministry said Wednesday (Feb 22) that Ukraine is likely to harvest around 50 million tonnes of grain this year.

"According to the optimistic forecast, we expect today, the gross grain harvest to reach 50 million tonnes. The most pessimistic scenarios predict that Ukraine's farmers will harvest 42 million tonnes of grain this year," Agriculture Minister Mykola Prysyazhnyuk told reporters.

Prysyazhnyuk said the government expects this year's wheat harvest at 16 million tonnes.

Prysyazhnyuk added that Ukraine provided the agricultural world market with 12.5 million tonnes of grains during the current marketing year, from July 2011 until June 2012.

Ukraine sowed winter grain in 8.4 million hectares in 2011, up 3.8% from 2010. Ukraine is one of the world's largest grain producers. Its grain output in 2011 reached 56 million tonnes.