Ukrainian farmers harvested 41.2 million tonnes of grain from 11.1 million hectares up until September 29, the agriculture ministry said on Monday. It said that farmers had harvested 75 percent of the sown area and that grain yield averaged 3.72 tonnes per hectare, around 14 percent higher than last year's level. The ministry said earlier this month that farms had completed the 2014 wheat and barley harvest, threshing 24.4 million tonnes of wheat and 9.3 million tonnes of barley.
It also said that the share of milling wheat in the 2014 harvest would be 13 percent below the previous year's level, and stood at 56 percent. The ministry said farmers had so far harvested 5.0 million tonnes of maize. Last week, the ministry cut its forecast for the 2014 grain harvest by 5 percent to 60 million tonnes, saying the figure took into account lower harvests due to fighting in the east of the country and the loss of Crimea, which was annexed by Russia earlier this year. Ukraine harvested 63 million tonnes of grain in 2013. The ministry also said on Monday that farmers had sown around 3 million hectares of winter wheat for the 2015 harvest so far and, according to weather forecasters, weather conditions are favourable for sowing.