Ukraine's ProAgro agriculture consultancy raised the country's grain exports forecast to 8.980 million tonnes in the 2004/05 season from the previous estimate of 8.460 million, analysts said on Tuesday. ProAgro, which put Ukraine's 2004 crop at 36.415 million tonnes, said in a statement the country was likely to export 3.0 million tonnes of wheat, 4.0 million tonnes of barley, 150,000 tonnes of rye, 1.575 million tonnes of maize and other cereals.
In December, the consultancy forecast wheat exports at 2.95 million tonnes and barley at 3.6 million tonnes.
Ukraine's statistics committee said earlier this month the country harvested a record 41.7 million tonnes of grain and the government forecast exports at up to 12 million tonnes in the 2004/05 July-June season. Analysts have said the official crop figures are overstated.
Official data say Ukraine exported a total of 6,488,400 tonnes of grain between July and December 2004, including 2,514,100 tonnes of wheat, 3,195,300 tonnes of barley and 525,200 tonnes of maize.