August 5, 2009

Russia may harvest 85 million tonnes of grain in 2009 compared with 108 million tonnes last year, according to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Tuesday (Aug 4).

Despite the year-on-year drop and the lack of surplus possibility, Putin said the 2009 harvest would be sufficient for Russia.

Russia's Agriculture Ministry said in mid-July that drought had destroyed about seven percent of crops in several major grain-growing regions equal to an area of around 3.2 million hectares.

The worst hit areas were the Orenburg Region and the Republic of Bashkortostan in the Urals, the Samara and Volgograd regions and the Republic of Tatarstan in the Volga area and south Russia's Saratov Region. An emergency regime has been introduced in all the affected regions to try and lessen the damage from the drought.

Meanwhile, Russian Agriculture Minister Elena Skrynnik said that Russian grain shipments may total 23 million tonnes.