Russia has harvested 80.3 million tonnes of grain by bunker weight so far, or 2.6 million tonnes more than a year ago, the Agriculture Ministry said on Monday.
It said in a statement that sowing of winter grain for the 2006 harvest proceeded slower than last year. Farmers had sown 11.1 million hectares with winter grains, some 70 percent of the targeted area or 1.2 million hectares less than a year ago.
Russia officially estimates this year's grain crop to be no lower than last year's 78 million tonnes by clean weight. Bunker weight is normally some 8 percent higher than clean weight, obtained after grain has been cleaned and dried.
Winter cereals, mainly wheat and rye, account for about 40 percent of total grain output. The ministry's statement said that by October 3 Russia had threshed 48.8 million tonnes of wheat or 4.3 million tonnes more than a year ago.
Grains had been harvested from 40.8 million hectares, or 95 percent of the harvest area and 1.9 million ha more than by the same date last year.
Average yields declined by 0.03 tonnes per hectare to 1.96 tonnes.
Wheat yields declined by 0.04 tonnes to 2.09 tonnes per hectare. The statement said farmers had threshed 1.3 million tonnes of maize from 291,000 hectares, or 33 percent of the harvest area.
Large and medium farms had harvested 311,000 tonnes of rice from 47.5 percent of the harvest area. Farmers had also harvested 12.8 million tonnes of sugar beet from 478,000 hectares, or 59 percent of the harvest area.
That was 4.0 million tonnes more than a year ago. Gross sunseed output was 4.0 million tonnes from 2.95 million hectares, or 54 percent of the harvest area. That was 1.8 million tonnes more than a year ago, the ministry said.
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