August 21 (SeeNews) - Bulgaria expects its 2019 wheat output to reach 6.1-6.6 million tonnes, the agriculture ministry said, increasing its forecast of 5.8-5.9 million tonnes made earlier this month.
The expected average yield before the end of the 2019 harvesting season is 6.09 tonnes of wheat per hectare, the agriculture ministry said in a statement on Monday.
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Bulgaria also expects to harvest 518,000-579,000 tonnes of barley this year, with an average yield of 5.39 tonnes per hectare.
The ministry said earlier this month 5.6 million tonnes of wheat were harvested from 96.1% of the total area under wheat as of August 1, an increase of 8.7% compared to the 2018 output. It also said that 533,700 tonnes of barley were collected from 99.12% of the barley-sown area, marking an 8.3% rise in output in comparison with 2018.
This year's wheat harvest exceeds the output of 2018 in terms of both quantity and quality and comes close to the record production of 2017, agriculture minister Dessislava Taneva noted earlier this month.
Last year, wheat output totalled approximately 5.4 million tonnes, according to data published by the ministry. The average yield was 4.79 tonnes per hectare.
Bulgaria harvested 6.13 million tonnes of wheat at an average yield of 5.35 tonnes per hectare in 2017.