A local official announced on Friday that the harvesting campaign had begun in Crimea earlier than expected. The goal is to collect 1,1 million metric tons, including 900,000.00 tons of wheat.

The latest crop forecast for Crimea is lower than last year's 1.5 million ton harvest. Crimea suffered frosts during the spring but Denis Kratsyk the local agriculture ministry said in May that crops were in a good condition.

The grain harvest of Russia, which is the world's largest wheat exporter, includes Crimea and four other regions, which Russia controls in large part after three years of conflict in Ukraine.

Ukraine still hopes for a return of its lands, but Russia has rejected this.

Rosstat, the Russian state statistics agency included Crimea's harvest in its national figure of 125,9 million tons for 2020. Rosstat, Russia's state statistics agency, did not include the harvest of the other regions that Russia controls in southern Ukraine and eastern Ukraine (which Moscow calls "new territories") which is estimated to be around 4 million tons.

The Russian agriculture ministry stated that the harvest this year would be better than the last. The estimates of analysts range from 127.6 millions tons from the consultancy Sovecon to 138.6 millions tons by Rusagrotrans.

The Russian government has said that it will need to do more to keep its position as the top wheat exporter of the world. (Reporting and editing by Andrew Osborn.)

(source: Reuters)