February 2, 2011

Russia to consider scrapping grain export ban in February

The Russian government will be able to consider in February whether the current grain export ban should be removed, Deputy Economic Development Minister Andrey Klepach said on Tuesday (Feb 1).

Klepach said the main condition for the removal of the grain export ban was whether Russia could harvest at least 80 million tonnes of grain this year.

"This will become clear in the spring, so in a month's time we'll be in a position to consider whether the export ban should be removed. If the harvest prospect is 80-85 million tonnes, as is expected, then we can resume grain exports," he said.

Last year, Russia harvested 60.9 million tonnes of grain in clean weight, 37.3% less than in 2009 when 97.1 million tonnes was harvested. Due to the drop, the government has banned grain exports until the beginning of the next marketing year in July 1.