KYIV- Rains across much of Ukraine have improved conditions for the winter grain sowing, reducing concerns about the 2021 harvest after a severe drought, APK-Inform consultancy said on Tuesday.

"Sufficiently heavy rains in the last days of September and early October ended the long-term air-soil drought in most regions of Ukraine and improved conditions for sowing and the development of winter crops," the consultancy said in a report.

Weather forecasters said this month the weather conditions in Ukraine were the worst in 10 years, and only 10% to 15% of arable land was suitable for sowing winter crops for the 2021 harvest because of the severe drought.

APK-Inform has said the pace of Ukraine's 2020/21 winter wheat sowing is the slowest for at least 10 years because of drought, and that farmers could extend planting even into December.

Ukraine's economy ministry issued its first official information on winter sowing in late September, and said on Tuesday that farms had sown 2.9 million hectares of winter wheat, or 47% of the expected winter wheat area, as of Oct. 5.

The country plans to sow 6.1 million hectares of winter wheat for the 2021 harvest.

Ukraine accounts for about 16% of global grain exports and sold 57.2 million tonnes of grain abroad in the 2019/20 season. The government has said exports could decline to 47.4 million tonnes in 2020/21.

(Reporting by Pavel Polityuk; Editing by Susan Fenton and Jan Harvey) ((pavel.polityuk@tr.com; +380 44 2449150; Reuters Messaging: pavel.polityuk.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))