January 3, 2012

Russian winter grain losses to be average

Russia's winter grain losses in 2011/12 crop year are expected to be average, according to Russian Agriculture Minister Yelena Skrynnik.

Russia has sown 16.1 million ha with winter grains for the 2012 crop, up from 15.9 million ha a year ago following a severe drought, but down from 18.9 million ha in 2009.

"We expect losses of between 6-7% (of the total sown area), which is an average level, and if we have 15.1 million ha, this will be a normal area left after the wintering," Skrynnik said.

"With average yields, we may harvest up to 40 million tonnes of winter grains, which is two million tonnes above the average in the last five years," she added.

Winter grains, primarily winter wheat and some winter barley, have bigger yields than the spring grains and account for a substantial part of the total grain crop.
 

In 2010, Russia harvested 27.9 million tonnes of winter wheat out of the total wheat crop of 41.5 million tonnes, and in 2009 nearly 39 million tonnes out of the total of 61.7 million tonnes.

Last year's winter barley crop was 1.7 million tonnes out of 8.4 million tonnes, and 2.1 million tonnes out of 17.9 million tonnes in 2009.