September 18, 2014

Russia to be world's number three in wheat exports during 2014/15

Russia may emerge to be the world's third largest wheat exporter in the 2014/15 marketing year, with shipments expected to reach 22.5 million tonnes, the USDA reported.

Trailing behind the Federation are the EU and US.

According to said agriculture consultancy, SovEcon, Russia is progressing towards its second-largest grain harvest since the breakup of the Soviet Union, and the biggest in six years. It has raised its Russian 2014 grain crop forecast to 104-106 million tonnes by clean weight from 98 million due to favourable weather and high yields. Wheat forecast for 2014 is raised to 60 million tonnes from 58 million tonnes.   

In meantime, Russia harvested a record 108 million tonnes of grain in 2008 and is expected to harvest 100 million tonnes in 2014, said the Agriculture Ministry.

All crop forecasts from Russia's officials and analysts currently include 1.2 million tonnes of grain from the Crimean peninsula which Russia annexed from Ukraine in early 2014.

Russia had exported 8.75 million tonnes of grains, including 7.7 million tonnes of wheat, between the start of the 2014/15 marketing year on July 1 and September 10, the Agriculture Ministry said. Grain exports reach a record high of 4.7 million tonnes in August and remain active, supporting prices, according to SovEcon.

The consultancy also added that Russian prices for milling wheat with 12.5% protein content were flat at US$248/tonne.