Ukraine may export up to 17% more grain than it had expected in 2009-10, President Viktor Yushchenko said, after data showed the harvest handsomely beating government and analysts' forecasts.

Mr Yushchenko told reporters that exports may hit 18m-20m tonnes in 2009-10, compared with 17m last year.

The comments followed a statement from Yuri Melnyk, the Ukraine agriculture minister that production of early-harvested crops, including wheat and barley, had come in at 35m tonnes.

Added to the 10m tonnes Ukraine expects from corn, the advance harvest leaves the country on course for total production of 45m tonnes.

The government had forecast a crop of 42-43m tonnes, with Kiev-based consultancy UkrAgroConsult pitching output at 40.7m tonnes in a report earlier this month.

The US Department of Agriculture last week estimated Ukraine's wheat production at 19.5m tonnes and pegged the corn harvest at 8.5m tonnes.

Wheat beats

Ukraine's harvest improvement reflected largely a better-than-expected wheat crop, which Mr Melnyk pegged at 21.2m tonnes bunker weight, a measure typically marginally higher than clean weight.

The government had pegged wheat output at 20.0m tonnes, with barley production forecast at 10.0m tonnes.

Nonetheless, grain production will come in well below last year's 53.3m tonnes, thanks to late frosts and cutbacks in applications of fertilizer and sprays in the face of tight credit and lower crop prices.

'Very positive mood'

The estimates from Mr Melnyk, who said the government would revisit its export estimate, follow a string of raised hopes for production in Western Europe.

Agritel, the French analysis group, on Wednesday reporting that the German wheat harvest had ended in a "very positive mood, with production probably close to 26m tonnes".

The forecast, while marginally below that made by German farm co-operatives earlier this month, would put this year's crop in line with the 2009 harvest.