Russia's key wheat export region records lower yields

Russia's largest Black Sea farm region of Krasnodar is starting wheat harvesting after a delay due to rains and with lower yields than last year, the regional agriculture ministry said on Friday. Russia, one of the world's main wheat exporters, is set to increase its wheat crop by 2 percent to 53 million tonnes with 19 million tonnes available for export, according to the latest Reuters poll.
Krasnodar region, also known as Kuban, the key region for wheat export via the Black Sea, harvested 24,000 tonnes of winter wheat with yields of 4.90 tonnes per hectare as of June 26, the ministry said in statement. At the same time a year ago, the harvesting campaign was very active thanks to favourable weather with 1 million tonnes of wheat harvested with yields at 5.15 tonnes per hectare. Across all grains, the region has already harvested 0.7 million tonnes from 8 percent of the area with yields at 5.30 tonnes per hectare, the ministry added.