Russian wheat harvest begins early

Russia, one of the world's largest wheat exporters, will start this year's wheat harvest on a large scale next week, two weeks earlier than usual, the state weather forecaster said on Tuesday. Last year, a drought slashed Russia's wheat harvest by one third, while the share of higher-quality milling wheat increased. This year, wheat volumes are expected to recover to near previous levels, while quality falls back to the usual level of about 70 percent milling wheat and 30 percent feed wheat, traders said.
Russia's southern regions of Krasnodar and Stavropol, responsible for its largest wheat production and cereal export via the Black Sea, started the harvest a few days ago, according to a representative at the weather forecaster. The regions of Krasnodar, Stavropol and Adygeya harvested 682,600 tonnes of all kinds of grain from 140,200 hectares as of June 17, SovEcon consultancy said on its website.
Grain yields in these regions were at 4.87 tonnes per hectare, up from 2.98 tonnes at the start of last year's campaign. Russia's Agriculture Ministry expects the 2013 grain harvest to increase 31 percent to 93 million tonnes, including an increase of as much as 42 percent increase up to 54 million tonnes. "A large harvest always brings more forage," Vladimir Petrichenko, the head of the ProZerno consultancy, said. Last year, Russia got about 75 percent of milling wheat from the harvest, while during more fruitful years, the share is about 70 percent, he added.
And out of the total volume of milling wheat, the fourth-class wheat, with about 11.5 to 12.5 percent of protein content, will account for about 70 percent, a trader predicted. Last year almost all of the milling wheat harvested had a protein content of 12.5 percent and 13.5 percent, he added.
Weather in the Southern Federal District and in the North Caucasus District, where many grain-growing regions are based, is forecast to be mixed for harvesting during the coming days. Heavy rains are expected in most parts of these districts on June 18-20, while the possibility of wildfires will be high in some parts of Rostov and Volgograd regions, the forecaster said.