February 16, 2010

Russia stores 9.5 million tonnes of intervention grain

The Russian government has accumulated 9.5 tonnes of intervention grain and is under pressure to find buyers abroad in order to free up storage facilities for this year's harvest, the agriculture ministry said Friday (Feb 12, 2010).

The ministry said some of the intervention grain was being shipped as humanitarian aide to Cuba, with humanitarian aid shipments to Mongolia and Nicaragua to begin shortly.

Negotiations are currently under way for commercial shipments of intervention grain to Argentina, Bangladesh and Brazil.

Russia's first deputy prime minister Viktor Zubkov said earlier that the government had suspended intervention grain purchases, partly because the country's grain storage facilities were overloaded, and a government decree on the export of 2.5 million-3 million tonnes of intervention grain was to be expected within days.