Farms had gathered about 84 million tons of grain as of Oct. 17, down from 99 million tons in 1993, the news agency said. Predictions for the year's harvest had ranged from 90 to 95 million tons. Yield average was down 10% from 1993, at 1.73 tons per hectare.
Good weather late into the fall helped minimize losses, the news agency quoted an official at the Ministry of Agriculture as saying. State procurement is slow at 8.8 million tons to date, compared with 24.4 million tons in 1993.
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