July 30, 2012
Russia set to sell grain on state interventions
Russia is ready to sell some grain via state interventions as it may cool down pressure on domestic grain prices after heat.
"We are prepared for different scenarios," agriculture minister Nikolai Fyodorov was quoted by Interfax news agency as saying in Sochi on Friday (July 27). "We are ready to start grain trade interventions, but we need to calculate everything." He didn't say when the interventions could begin.
From April-June Russia sold about two million tonnes of grain in state interventions. The country still has about five million tonnes in its intervention stocks.
Spring drought has been followed by persistent rains in Russia's southern breadbasket regions and the drought in Siberia and Volga Valley, raising fears of possible disruption to the country's grain export.
