January 13, 2009
Russia raises wheat prices for some regions
Russia has raised the price it will pay for wheat from certain regions in order to prop up the market.
The price of benchmark third-grade wheat from parts of the Central and Volga federal districts, and the entire Northwestern federal districts, will be raised to RUB6,850 per tonne from RUB5,500-6,000, said an Agriculture Ministry order.
Lower class fourth-grade milling wheat from those regions will be set at RUB6,250 per tonne, up from RUB4,800-4,900 while fifth-grade feed wheat will fetch RUB5,450 per tonne, up from RUB4,000-4,100.
The government has also allocated nearly RUB3 billion to purchase 19-20 million tonnes of grain.
Russia's 2008 grain harvest is estimated to be 108 million tonnes, of which 11.5 million tonnes had been exported. Russia plans to export another 10 million tonnes in the first half of 2009.
In addition, First Deputy Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov on Monday (Jan 12) said that Russia plans to establish a national company for grain exports.
A draft degree to set up the company has been submitted to the presidential administration, said Zubkov.
The national grain company may consolidate from eight to 10 large Russian grain traders, said Agriculture Minister Alexei Gordeyev.
