KIEV, Sept. 11 (Xinhua) -- The Ukrainian agricultural ministry has raised the forecasts for the country's grain harvest and exports due to better than expected weather conditions and the favorable situation on the global market, a senior official said on Tuesday.

Maksym Martynyuk, the country's first deputy minister of agrarian policy and food, wrote on Facebook that the ministry raised its projection for this year's grain harvest from about 60 million tons to 63.1 million tons.

According to the official, the strong grain yield would enable Ukraine to supply abroad about 42 million tons of cereals in the current marketing year compared with the previously estimated 40.6 million tons.

Ukraine is a major producer and supplier of grain to the world market, covering an estimated 17 percent of the global barley exports, 12 percent of corn exports and 10 percent of wheat supplies.

The East European country harvested 61.3 million tons of crops in 2017, and sold abroad 39.4 million tons in the previous marketing year, between July 1, 2017 and June 30, 2018.