March 18, 2011

Russia sells 670,800 tonnes of grain through interventions

The Russian government has sold 670,800 tonnes of grain in its first nine intervention tenders started this year to curb price rises after a drought. 

The sales began on February 4 in response to rising grain prices after last summer's drought cut the harvest by more than a third to 60.9 million tonnes.

Russia, formerly the world's third-largest wheat exporter, banned grain exports from August 15, 2010-July 1, 2011 and announced the sale of 2.5 million tonnes of grain at intervention tenders in the first half of this year.

The USDA forecast that Russia will experience a feed grain shortage of 2.5-3 million tonnes by April-May, and local experts last month said they expect Russia to import one million tonnes of grain this year.

The government has said it will distribute an additional 3.3 million tonnes of grain to drought-hit regions at a low fixed price from February. Before the start of the tenders, the government had 9.6 million tonnes of grain in its stocks.