May 4, 2012

Russia ships 25 million tonnes grain in July 2011-May 1, 2012

From the beginning of the current marketing year July 1, 2011-May 1, 2012, Russia exported 25 million tonnes of grain, including flour, rice and pulses, the SovEcon agricultural markets analyst said Thursday (May 3).

SovEcon said Russia's total grain exports in the 2011-12 marketing year were likely to exceed 27 million tonnes.

SovEcon falling volumes of wheat exports were being compensated by increased exports of barley and, especially, corn. The high pace of exports is being supported by the grain intervention sales carried out by the government, SovEcon said.

The Russian government has set an upper limit for grain export in the current marketing year of 27 million tonnes, after which limits on exports will be considered.

Russia harvested 93 million tonnes of grain in clean weight in 2011, compared with 60.9 million tonnes in 2010, when harvest was affected by drought. Russia's 2010 grain harvest was 37.3% less than in 2009, when 97.1 million tonnes was harvested, which forced the government to impose a ban on the export of grain, which was in force until the beginning of the 2011-12 marketing year July 1 2011.