The harvest of crops in Ukraine in 2013 could reach 52-53 million tonnes compared to 42.6 million in 2012, Director of the Ukrainian weather center, Mykola Kulbida, has said.

"According to the forecast, gross grain, leguminous and groats crop harvest in Ukraine this year should be 52-53 million tonnes compared to 42.6 million tonnes last year," he said at a briefing in Kyiv on Tuesday.

He said that 24 million tonnes of corn would be harvested in Ukraine and 19.1 million tonnes of winter wheat. Kulbida said that the average corn yield in 2013 in Ukraine is very high – 51 centners per hectare.

He said that the forecast for the yield and gross harvesting of main crops in Ukraine was drawn up by hydrometeorologists last week. The presidential administration, ministries and government agencies were informed on this.

He said that at present, weather conditions in Ukraine are various, although they are mainly favorable or satisfactory for the formation of the harvest of main crops.

"In southern regions – Kherson region, the steppe part of Crimea, Zaporizhia, Donetsk, Luhansk and Kharkiv regions – there is not enough moisture in the soil, which worsens the state of most of agricultural crops, apart from winter crops," he added.