January 12, 2012

Russia's 2011 grain harvest soars 54% on-year 

Russia has reaped 93.9 million tonnes of grain in 2011 by clean weight, a 54% rise on-year and above market expectations of 92-93 million tonnes, state statistics office Rosstat's preliminary data showed.

Rosstat has estimated that the difference between bunker weight, in which the crop is estimated in the course of the harvesting, and clean weight, obtained after the grain is cleaned and dried, was 5.8% last year.

This is a rise from the 5.3% in drought-hit 2010, but is below the average of 6.5% in the previous several years.

Analysts had expected a bigger difference, as rains in many producing regions during the harvesting campaign should have increased moisture content in the grain.

Average grain yields rose by 53.1% on-year to 2.16 tonnes per hectare, although the area sown with grains for the 2011 crop rose by just 0.9% to 43.57 million hectares.

Output of crops, which suffered most during the 2010 drought, like millet and buckwheat, rose most notably in 2011.

In spite of the significant rise in output, prices of grain, particularly wheat, kept rising from the start of December due to record export volumes.

This had caused a decline of grain stocks in southern regions as well and in some central Russian regions badly hit by the last year's drought.

This increases expenses as grain has to be shipped from distant regions and therefore lowers the competitiveness of Russian grain, as the results of the latest Egyptian tender showed.