Ukraine's 2016 grain harvest will hit a record high 64 million tonnes, agriculture minister Taras Kutovy said on Friday, higher than an earlier estimate of 63 million. "This year we will have an all-time high grain harvest of 64 million tonnes with a yield of 4.4 tonnes per hectare," Kutovy said at an agricultural conference. Kutovy said that a higher output of maize was the reason for the new forecast, but gave no new estimate for the 2016 maize harvest.
Farmers had harvested 59.3 million tonnes of grain, including 20.2 million tonnes of maize, as of November 15, the ministry said this week. Farmers threshed 13.3 million hectares of grain from the 14.3 million hectares sown, it said. Kutovy said that the ministry had not revised its current forecast for Ukraine's 2016/17 grain exports of 41 million tonnes.
The world's third largest grain exporter, Ukraine has exported 16.4 million tonnes of grain so far this season which runs from July to June, ministry data showed. That included 9.47 million tonnes of wheat, 2.96 million tonnes of maize, 3.94 million tonnes of barley and some other cereals.