Russia should wait until the end of the year before selling grain from intervention stocks and limiting exports, the head of the country's main industry lobby said on Monday. Russian Grain Union President Arcadia Zlochevsky said intervening would drive down prices and discourage farmers from sowing grain for next season.
"If we need interventions, they should happen no earlier than New Year," Zlochevsky told reporters on the sidelinnes of an industry conference "If we intervene during the period of mass harvesting, this will mean that prices will fall further while they are falling already.
Thus we deprive peasants (of) the stimulus to sow grain," he said. A working group comprising the grains union, traders and various government ministries will meet on September 13 to discuss whether to introduce export limits or tariffs and the timetable for any sale of grain from the government's intervention stocks.
Russian Economy Minister German Grief has said the government is considering such measures to guard against rising food prices and inflation. Zlochevsky also forecast Russia's 2007-grain harvest could match or exceed the 78.2 million tonnes produced in 2006.
"We are going to harvest at least the same amount of grain as last year, maybe more up to 80 million tonnes. This leaves us with the potential for 10 million tonnes of exports," he said. The Agriculture Ministry has officially forecast a 2007-grain crop of 76 million tonnes.