KIEV: Ukraine had harvested 48.2 million tonnes of grain from 11.6 million hectares, or 81 percent of its grain sowing area, as of October 17, Ukraine’s Agriculture Ministry said on Monday. The average yield rose to 4.13 tonne per hectare from 3.89 tonne a year earlier, it said in a statement. Ukraine had harvested 50.7 million tonnes of grain by the same date in 2015. The ministry said farms had harvested 9.3 million tonnes of maize from 1.7 million hectares, or 39 percent of the planted area. The average maize yield rose to 5.58 tonne per hectare from 5.12 tonne in 2015.
Ukraine has completed its wheat and barley harvests. The ministry has said Ukraine could harvest about 63 million tonnes of grain in total compared with 60 million in 2015. Farms had also harvested 10.4 million tonnes of sunflower seed from 80 percent of the sown area, 2.9 million tonnes of soybean and about 6.4 million tonnes of sugar beet, the ministry said.
