KIEV, July 11 – The U.S. Department of Agriculture has lowered its estimate of Ukraine’s 2012 grain harvest by 3.3%, or 1.5 million tons, compared with its June forecast, to 44.3 million tons.

The USDA kept its forecast for the wheat harvest at 13 million tons, but it revised downwards the estimate of the gross harvest of coarse grains to 31.3 million tons, from 32.8 million tons it projected in June.