July 14, 2010

 

Russian grain harvest shows on-year increase despite drought

Russian grain harvesting progress is still better than last year, as the majority of reaped grain comes from regions unaffected by the drought, according to the Agriculture Ministry.

 

Farmers harvested 9.6 million tonnes of grain by bunker weight by July 12, 0.8 million tonnes more than a year ago, a ministry statement, posted late on Monday (Jul 12), said.

 

Bunker weight is normally 7-8% higher than the clean weight obtained after the grain is cleaned and dried, but the difference may be lower in hot and dry years, such as this year.

 

Grains have been harvested from 2.9 million hectares, 214,300 hectares more than a year ago. Average yields were 3.31 tonnes of grain per hectare, up from 3.29 tonnes per hectare at the same date last year.

 

Winter wheat crop by July 12 was 6.2 million tonnes, 0.5 million tonnes more than a year ago. Barley output was 1.6 million tonnes, or 0.3 million less than at the same date in 2009.

 

The bulk of the harvested grain came from regions largely unaffected by the unusually high temperatures.

 

The ministry has said the total grain crop may fall below 85 million tonnes from 97 million tonnes last year as a state of emergency has been declared in 16 Russian regions by June 12 due to drought, up from 14 regions last week.

 

It said three more regions in central Russia, on the Volga river and in the southern Urals, could soon be also be added.