March 5, 2008

Russia aims to increase grain harvest by 3.5 percent in 2008

Russia plans to harvest this year 85 million metric tonnes of grain, 3 million tonnes more than in 2007, Agriculture Minister Alexey Gordeyev told Russia's President Vladimir Putin in Moscow Tuesday (March 5, 2008), as quoted by the presidential press service.

Gordeyev said 300,000 hectares of land that was not used for grain planting would be reclaimed this year, which will go towards increasing the grain harvest along with the use of new technology and mineral fertilisers.

Gordeyev also said there was enough fuel and seeds for farmers to plant sufficient amounts of grain this year and the preparation of equipment for the planting campaign was proceeding at a faster pace than last year.

Farmer interest was stimulated by high world grain prices, which had more than doubled since last year, Gordeyev said.

The news comes on the same day the federal statistics agency Rosstat announced that the country's grain stocks on Feb. 1 totalled 25.71 million tonnes, 7.4 percent less than on the same date last year.

There were 27.8 million tonnes on Feb. 1, 2007 which was down from 28.1 million tonnes on Feb. 1, 2006.

On Feb. 1 this year Russian farms held a total of 15.95 million tonnes of grain, a fall of 0.7 percent compared with Feb. 1, 2007. Grain processing and storage enterprises held a total of 9.76 million tonnes, 16.6 percent less than a year ago.

Russia harvested in 2007 81.8 million tonnes of grain compared with 78.6 million tonnes in 2006.