Russia is likely to harvest 90 million tonnes of grain in clean weight this year and not 85 million tonnes as was forecast before, Agriculture Minister Elena Skrynnik said in Moscow Thursday (Oct 1) as reported by the agriculture ministry's press service.

Skrynnik said Russia's annual grain requirement was 77 million tonnes and, together with the grain left over from the previous marketing year, Russia was in a position to export 19 million tonnes of grain in the 2009-10 marketing year.

In the 2008-09 marketing year Russia harvested 108 million tonnes of grain and exported 23 million tonnes.