July 28, 2011

Russian grain yield leaps 58% on-week 

Russia's grain crop surged 58% on-week as the 2011 harvest gathered pace, according to Agriculture Ministry data on Wednesday (Jul 27).

The grain harvest reached 27 million tonnes by bunker weight, with wheat accounting for 21.2 million tonnes of the total.

Data issued last week showed that the harvest was 17.05 million tonnes as of July 20, with wheat crop standing at 11.4 million tonnes.

Russia has grown increasingly confident about the size of its grain harvest, with First Deputy Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov on Monday saying intervention purchases are possible.

Russia expects to harvest 85-90 million tonnes of grain this year, up from 61 million tonnes in 2010, when a third of the crop was lost because of the most severe drought in more than a century.

Bunker weight used to measure the crop in the course of the harvesting is normally 5-7% higher than the clean weight obtained after grain is cleaned and dried, but the difference may be lower in hot and dry years.