May 15, 2007

Russia's spring grain planting falls behind schedule

Russia planted spring grains to May 14 on 12.2 million hectares, which is two million ha less than on the same date last year, the agriculture ministry announced Monday (May 14).

The ministry said planting in the Volga region and Siberia was being slowed down by cold and rainy weather.

The situation in the country as a whole was satisfactory, but the situation in the Volga region and Siberia caused concern and made predictions of this year's harvest difficult.

The ministry's latest harvest forecast has been 76-79 million tonnes, but it said Monday the slow pace of planting in the two regions could negatively affect the harvest.

Russia's 2006 grain harvest was 78.4 million tonnes in clean weight, compared with 78.2 million tonnes in 2005.