Ukraine may harvest between 45 million and 50 million tonnes of grain in 2012, according to First Vice Premier Valeriy Khoroshkovsky.
"Farmers do not foresee a considerable reduction in the gross yield of grain compared to previous year, which is projected at 40-50 million tonnes. This will fully meet domestic demand and retain a certain reserve of resources for shipments onto foreign markets," he said in parliament on March 23.
According to him, despite large-scale re-sowing of winter crops (3-3.5 million hectares), areas under grain crops for the 2012 harvest will be 15.8 million hectares, which corresponds to last year’s figure.
In his words, areas under maize for seeds, spring wheat and barley, and other crops are to be expanded this year.
Khoroshkovsky also noted that out of 8.4 million hectares sown with winter grain crops for the 2012 harvest, young crops are growing on 7.3 million hectares, which is 87% of the areas under crops. Of them, crops on 63% of the areas (4.6 million hectares) are in good and satisfactory condition.
