Ukraine's grain harvest will total 38.6 million tonnes in 2010 and exports in the current marketing year (July 2010-June 2011) will total 12.7 million tonnes, the head of the Agriculture Policy Ministry's department for developing agricultural markets, Anatoly Rozgon, told journalists in Kyiv on Wednesday.
"The latest forecast is 38.6 million tonnes," he said.
It is the third time the ministry has reviewed the grain figures in the current marketing year, he said.
According to the forecast prepared in August, the harvest would equal 40 million tonnes and exports – 13.8 million tonnes.
Both figures were revised downward owing to the corn harvest, Rozgon said.
However, the figures are preliminary and they will be reviewed again once the harvest is completed, he said.
Meanwhile, the head of the Ukrainian Grain Union, Volodymyr Klymenko, forecast that grain exports in the current marketing year would total about 15 million tonnes.
"Ukraine could easily export about 15 million tonnes of grain," he told journalists in Kyiv on Wednesday.
The exports might include 6 million tonnes of wheat, 4 million tonnes of barley and 5 million tonnes of corn.
Ukraine’s grain harvest might reach about 40 million tonnes this year, down from 46 million tonnes in 2009, according to Ukrainian Grain Union figures.
