Ukrainian farmers had sown 6.5 million hectares of spring grain for 2015 harvest as of May 19, or 92 percent of the initial sowing area, the agriculture ministry said on Wednesday. The pace of this year's sowing is lower than in 2014, when farmers had sown 7.4 million hectares at a similar stage in the season, the ministry said in a statement.
It said farmers had already completed early spring grain sowing. The ministry said farmers had also sown 4.0 million hectares of maize, or 91 percent of the forecast. Ukraine harvested 28.5 million tonnes of maize from 4.36 million hectares in 2014. Ukraine, one of the world's major grain producers and exporters, harvested 63.8 million tonnes of grain in 2014 but the harvest could fall to up to 58 million tonnes this year, according to the ministry's estimates.