August 1, 2012

Despite weak harvest, Russia will retain its grain exportable surplus, while it does not expect a domestic deficit for grain.

Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said on Tuesday (July 31) that grain prices in Russia are being manipulated and urged authorities to take counter-measures.

Terms of government grain interventions should be set shortly, Interfax news agency quoted Medvedev as saying during the meeting in the Volgograd sowing region on Tuesday (July 31).

Russia is ready to sell some grain via state interventions, agriculture minister Nikolai Fyodorov said last week but did not specify when the intervention could take place.

From April-June Russia sold about two million tonnes of grain in state interventions and still has about five million tonnes in its stock.