The FINANCIAL — In 2009, the grain harvest in Ukraine will total nearly 38 mln tons, forecasted Alexei Blinov, the economist of the company Astrum Investment Management.
According to him, agricultural enterprises had rather limited access to financial resources from the beginning of the crisis and had to use lower volumes of mineral fertilizers compared to 2008. Exports of the harvest-2008 served as the main source of circulating assets, marked the economist. He forecasts that the general volume of agricultural production will decrease by 10% in 2009.
As a reminder, on June 3, Yuri Melnik, the Minister of Agrarian Policy of Ukraine, decreased the grain harvest to the level of 42-43 mln tons due to April frosts. But according to Y.Melnik, the forecast was not complete final.
According to the Minister, last year several agencies also forecasted the harvest in Ukraine at the level of 39 mln tons, but the grain crop indeed totaled 53 mln tons.
