June 6, 2007

Russia catches up with spring grain planting schedule

Russia planted spring grains to June 4 on 30 million hectares, which is 96 percent of the planned total area and about the same as was planted on the same date last year, the agriculture ministry announced Tuesday (Jun 5).

The ministry said in the last three days plentiful rains fell in the south of Russia, which had improved the condition of spring grain crops. A lack of rain earlier had caused concern over the condition of the crops and the ministry said Tuesday that in some areas in the Rostov and Volgograd regions there was still some damage from moisture shortage.

Central Russia and the Volga region have completed spring grain planting and lack of moisture was still reported in the Voronezh, Belgorod, Oryol, Ryazan and Saratov regions.

In Siberia and the Urals there are still some crops to be planted, with moisture content in the soil reported at normal levels.

The ministry said winter grains were in satisfactory condition, with crops damaged on 654,600 hectares, which is 1,700 hectares less than on the same date last year.

The ministry's latest harvest forecast has been 76-79 million tonnes, but it said the slow pace of planting in the earlier stage of the 2007 spring planting campaign 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.