Russia has harvested 28 percent more grain than by the same time last year, resulting in a decline in prices in many grain producing regions, the Agriculture Ministry said on Monday. It said in a statement over 28 million tonnes of grain by bunker weight had been harvested by July 30, 5.4 million tonnes more than at the same time last year.
Grains had been harvested from 10 million ha, or from 22.1 percent of the targeted area. The average yield was 3.10 tonnes per ha. The ministry did not provide a comparison for yields on the same day in 2006. Russia expects to harvest 76 million tonnes of grain by clean weight, down from 78.6 million in 2006 due to a drought in some grain-growing regions in May and June.
Bunker weight is normally about 8 percent higher than clean weight, obtained after grain has been cleaned and dried, but in some dry and hot years the difference may be lower.
The ministry statement said the arrival of the new harvest grain and rising demand pushed down milling and feed grain prices in the European part of Russia. Average prices for third grade milling wheat declined by 186 roubles ($7.30) last week to 5,999 roubles per tonne, fourth grade wheat by 133 roubles to 5,806, feed wheat to 5,334 roubles per tonne from 5,588 roubles.
Feed barley was 5,680 roubles per tonne, down 31 roubles last week. High grain prices caused by expectations of a lower crop and rising world prices raised speculation in the market in the last few weeks that the government might impose restrictions on grain exports to stabilise prices.
But Agriculture Ministry officials and the Russian Grain Union, the industry lobby, have said they saw no need for urgent government intervention during the harvesting campaign, as they expected a decline.
Comments
Comments are closed.