You're reading: Official: Grain harvest in Crimea to be half that of last year

The grain harvest in Crimea in 2012 will be about one million tonnes, which is almost half that of 2011, forecasts Crimean Prime Minister Anatoliy Mohyliov.

“This year the harvest will be lower than last year due to the winter and abnormal weather conditions in late April-early May, when the weather was very hot and dry. While last year we harvested over two million tonnes of grain, then in the current year the figure will be about 40-50% of that – around one million tonnes. To fully provide the peninsula’s population with bread some 300,000 tonnes of grain are needed, i.e. there is still some grain reserve,” he said.

In addition, the Crimean premier noted that the State Reserve of Ukraine has an adequate supply of last year’s grain, which allows to bread prices in the country to be kept at a stable level.

“The weather conditions certainly mean we won’t have a normal harvest this year, but it will be enough to ensure the normal life of the public throughout the country,” he said.

At the same time, according to the main department for information policy of the Council of Ministers of Crimea, the harvesting campaign has started in Crimea.The harvest has been collected from 7% of the areas to be harvested. Some 200 harvesters are being used in the campaign.