Continuing to make production under war conditions, Ukraine has completed the harvest of 93% of the cultivated areas. The country, which broke a record last year with 86 million tons of grain, is expected to complete this year with 51 million tons.

Ukrainian farms had harvested 49.5 million tons of grain from 93% of the expected area as of Jan. 6, the agriculture ministry said. The ministry said in a statement that farmers had harvested 10.7 million hectares of crops, with the grain yield averaging 4.64 tons per hectare. It said farmers had completed the 2022 wheat and barley harvests, threshing 20.2 million and 5.8 million tons respectively. The total volume also included 22.1 million tons of corn, harvested from 81% of the expected area with a yield of 6.48 tons per hectare, Reuters reported.

In 2021, Ukraine harvested 32.2 million tons of wheat and 9.4 million tons of barley. The ministry has said a fall in output in 2022 was caused by hostilities in the country’s eastern, northern and southern regions. Ukraine sowed more than 6 million hectares of winter wheat for the 2022 harvest, but a large area was occupied after Russia’s invasion and only 4.9 million hectares were harvested in Ukrainian-controlled territory.

The ministry said farmers also harvested 10.5 million tons of sunflower seeds from 99% of the planted area, and 9 million tons of sugar beet from 99% of the area. The government has said Ukraine could harvest around 51 million tons of grain this year, down from a record 86 million tons in 2021, because of the loss of land to Russian forces and lower yields.