December 10, 2013

Russia's grain crop reaches over 96 million tonnes due to good weather

Due to better weather conditions, Russia's on-going grain harvest is producing higher yields which are now over 96 million tonnes, the agriculture ministry said.

As of December 9, 96.2 million tonnes of grain was harvested on 42 million hectares, or 95.5% of the total area. Last year, the area was three million hectares less and 75 million tonnes was harvested, the ministry said

The average yield to date is 2.29 tonnes/hectare compared with 1.92 tonnes/hectare on the same date last year.

Wheat harvest to date was 54.1 million tonnes on 23.5 million hectares, 1.9 million hectares more than a year ago, with an average yield of 2.3 tonnes/hectare. On the same date last year, the wheat harvest was 39.7 million tonnes with an average yield of 1.86 tonnes/hectare.

The barley harvest to date was 16.3 million tonnes on 8.1 million hectares, 0.5 million hectare more than a year ago. The average yield was 2.02 tonnes/hectare. The barley harvest was 14.7 million tonnes with an average yield of 1.93 tonnes/hectare a year ago.

The corn harvest to date was 11.3 million tonnes on 2.1 million hectares, 0.2 million hectare more than a year ago. The average yield was 5.29 tonnes/hectare. Last year, the corn harvest to the same date was 8.3 million tonnes with the average yield of 4.45 tonnes/hectare.

The ministry said it expected this year's grain harvest to rise to 88 million to 90 million tonnes in clean weight from 71.7 million tonnes in 2012 when crops were damaged by drought. Russia's grain export in the 2012-13 marketing year fell to 15.69 million tonnes from 27.2 million tonnes in the previous marketing year. In the current marketing year, (July to June), the agriculture ministry expects Russia's grain exports to rise to 18 million to 20 million tonnes.