September 7, 2011

Russia plans to export 20 million tonnes of grain

Russia has intended to hit 20 million tonnes of grain export this year, said the Agriculture Ministry on Tuesday (Sep 6).

The grain would be mainly exported to traditional importers, including Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, according to Agriculture Minister Yelena Skrynnik.

She told Russian President Dmitry Medvedev that most of the exported grains have come from the Southern and North Caucasus federal districts, while the Central and Volga federal districts produced grain for domestic consumption.

Currently, some 68 million tonnes of grains have been harvested in Russia, which were 700,000 tonnes more than 2009 and eight million tonnes more than 2010 when the country's grain output was seriously hit by drought and heat.

"We have successfully overcome the consequences of the drought," Skrynnik said, adding that the harvest of oil seed, corn, sunflower, vegetables and potato were good enough to cover domestic needs already.

Medvedev ordered to reserve part of the current harvest for the future.

The Russian Agriculture Ministry has upgraded the grain export forecast several times this year. In July, it raised the export estimation from 15 million tonnes to 18 tonnes.

Russia imposed a grain export embargo last year due to harvest loss caused by abnormal drought and heat.