October 4, 2006

Russia harvests 73 million tonnes grains in 2006

Russian farmers have harvested 73 million tonnes of grain this year in bunker weight (before drying and cleaning), Agriculture Minister Alexei Gordeyev said Tuesday (Oct 3), the news agency Prime-Tass reported.

"Taking into consideration carryover stocks, we'll be able to cover domestic demand in full, while export potential in the 2006/07 marketing year (July-June) will remain at 10 million tonnes," Gordeyev told reporters.

The minister gave no comparative figure, Prime-Tass said.

Crops have been taken in from 92 percent of the area, the minister said. Good results were registered in regions of southern Russian as well as along the Volga River, both of which are the country's important grain producing areas.

"During the last five years, farmers in South Russia's Stavropol collected over 6 million tonnes per year, while the output stood at just 4.6 million in 1986... Record-high output for the last 14 years was registered in Volga's Mordovia region, where the output hit 1 million tonnes," Gordeyev said.

The Agriculture Ministry had earlier said that the 2006 grain output would amount to around 73-74 million tonnes in clean weight (after drying and cleaning), down from 78 million last year.