August 9, 2011

Russia gathers 30% of grain harvest

Russia has so far harvested 39.8 million tonnes of grain by bunker weight, or 30% of the sown area by August 8, according to the Agriculture Ministry.

Last year, the ministry said Russia harvested 35.4 million tonnes of grain by bunker weight by August 3, 0.4 million tonnes less than a year earlier.

This year, average grain yields achieved from the harvested area rose to three tonnes per hectare from 2.16 tonnes a year ago, the ministry statement said.

Russia officially expects to harvest 85-90 million tonnes of grain this year, compared with 61 million tonnes a year ago, although some analysts believed the crop may be bigger.

Bunker weight is used to measure the crop in the course of the harvesting and 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.

Wheat crop by August 8 was 30.3 million tonnes, compared with 27.1 million tonnes on-year, while average yields rose to 3.27 tonnes per hectare from 2.44 tonnes.

Weather conditions were forecast to be satisfactory for the harvesting of spring grains and for the formation of the spring grain in both European and Asian parts of Russia in August.

But the conditions will be less favourable for the grain crop development in the southeastern part of European Russia, it said. In the Urals and in Siberia conditions will be favourable for the winter grain sowing.