Ukraine's government, citing severe drought, has cut its 2007 grain harvest forecast to a maximum of 30 million tonnes against a previous figure of 38 million tonnes, a deputy prime minister said on Monday.
"There will be about 12 million tonnes of wheat and altogether up to 30 million tonnes, perhaps less," Viktor Slauta told Reuters after a news conference. "Everything depends on the maize harvest."
The government had said Ukraine was likely to harvest 18 million tonnes of wheat this year. Ukraine's grain harvest last year stood at 34.25 mln tonnes of grain, including about 14 million tonnes of wheat.
Last week, Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich said severe drought in 10 regions might reduce the 2007 grain harvest by about 10 million tonnes. But Slauta said lower harvest figures would prompt no rise in bread prices as Ukraine had sufficient grain in stocks. He said stocks totalled 2.0 million tonnes of food wheat as of June 1.
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