KIEV, Aug. 12 - The U.S. Department of Agriculture has boosted its forecast for Ukraine's grain harvest this year by 11.6% over its last-month's forecast, or by 4.9 million tons to 47.3 million tons.

The USDA website says Ukraine will export 21.1 million tons of grain this agricultural year (July 2011 to June 2012), instead of the 17.9 million tons the department predicted previously.

The USDA has increased its estimate of the harvest and export of all grain crops. Ukraine will bring in 21 million tons of wheat this year (18 million tons forecast a month ago), 26.3 million tons of fodder grain (24.4 million tons), and 16.5 million tons of corn (15.5 million tons).