February 23, 2011

Russia's February 1 grain supply down 22% on-year

Russia's grain stocks as of February 1 amounted to 30.52 million tonnes, 22% less than on the same date of the previous year, the federal statistics agency said Tuesday (Feb 22).

Grain stocks held by farmers totalled 13.7 million tonnes, 35.5% less than a year ago. Grain stocks held by storage and processing enterprises totalled 16.82 million tonnes, a fall of 5.9% on-year.

Russia harvested last year 60.9 million tonnes of grain in clean weight, which is 37.3% less than in 2009, when 97.1 million tonnes was harvested.

This forced the government to impose a ban on the export of grain, which will be in force until the beginning of the next marketing year, July 1.