KIEV, Oct 31 (Reuters) – Ukraine’s farmers have sown 93 percent of winter crop grain area so far, data from the agriculture ministry on Thursday showed.
The ministry’s data showed that farms had sown 7.6 million hectares of winter grains as of Oct.31 compared with 7.9 million hectares sown at the same date last year.
Agriculture Minister Mykola Prysyazhnyuk said earlier this month that the former Soviet republic could lose up to 500,000 hectares of winter grain sowings, sharply down from its previous estimate of 1.5 million hectares.
The latest data shows farms have already sown 6.2 million hectares of winter wheat, or 93 percent of the forecast, and 1.1 million hectares of winter barley or 94 percent of the expected area.
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Ukraine is a traditional grower of winter wheat, which accounts for more than 90 percent of its overall wheat output.
The wheat output totalled about 23 million tonnes in bunker weight this year.
The ministry said farms had harvested a total of 51.9 million tonnes of grain from 14 million hectares or 89 percent of the area sown for 2013 harvest.
It says the 2013 maize harvest was 64 percent complete and farmers harvested 18.5 million tonnes of the crop with average yield of 5.95 tonne per hectare. The yield totalled 4.33 tonnes last year.
