February 11, 2009
Russia grain intervention takes pressure off the market
The grain intervention purchases carried out by the government, amounting to date to 7 million tonnes, and exports reaching 13 million tonnes to date, have taken 20 million tonnes of grain off the domestic market, stabilizing the market and stopping the fall in prices, Russia's First Deputy Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov said Tuesday (February 10).
Zubkov said grain interventions had successfully taken pressure off the market. Because of the excess of grain, caused by a bumper harvest in 2008, prices plummeted at the end of 2008, and the government, in order to ensure sufficient profits for farmers, was considering subsidising grain exports.
Zubkov also said the 2009 grain harvest was very unlikely to reach the amount of 108.1 million tonnes harvested in 2008 and it was important to keep grain at home now to ensure sufficient supplies on the domestic market in the next marketing year.
