March 25, 2011

 

Russia sells 788,223 tonnes grain via interventions

 

 

The government of Russia has sold 788,223 tonnes of grain this year in 12 intervention tenders launched to contain price rises after a harsh drought, the country's data showed Thursday (Mar 24).

 

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.

 

Formerly the world's third-largest wheat exporter, Russia banned grain exports from Aug. 15, 2010, to July 1, 2011, and announced it would sell 2.5 million tonnes of grain at intervention tenders in the first half of this year.

 

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. Before the start of the tenders, the government had 9.6 million tonnes of grain in its stocks.

 

The latest Russian 2011 grain sale intervention tender volumes and prices, based on data supplied by the National Mercantile Exchange (NAMEX), are as follows:

 

The government sells grain only to flour millers, animal breeders and animal feed producers.

 

The starting price for benchmark third-grade milling wheat and lower quality fourth-grade milling wheat purchased in 2005-2006 was set at RUB6,000 (US$211.5).

 

The starting price for third-grade wheat purchased in 2008-2009 was set at RUB6,600 (US$232.96) per tonne for the Urals and Siberian Federal Districts, at 6,050 per tonne for most of the Central, Southern and Volga Federal Districts.

 

For these regions the starting price for fourth-grade wheat purchased in 2008-2009 was set at RUB6,000 (US$21.28) per tonne.

 

For Moscow and several regions of the Central Federal Districts, as well as Perm region in Northern Urals and for the exclave of Kaliningrad the price for third-grade wheat was set at RUB7,535 (US$265.97) per tonne.

 

The starting price for fourth-grade wheat for the Central and North-Western Federal Districts was set at RUB6,875 (US$242.67) per tonne.

 

Fifth-grade feed wheat, milling rye and feed barley are offered at a starting price of RUB6,000 (US$21.28) per tonne regardless of the region. All prices include a 10% value added tax.