A severe drought, which devastated many Russian grain growing regions this summer, has slashed the country's grain crop by nearly a third so far and delayed winter grain sowing, the Agriculture Ministry said on Wednesday.
Russia harvested 41.5 million tonnes of grain by bunker weight by August 25, 31 percent down from a year ago. Grains were harvested from 20.2 million hectares, or from half of the targeted area. Average yields by August 25 this year were 2.06 tonnes per hectare, down from 2.65 tonnes per hectare a year ago.
The wheat crop by August 25 this year was 29.0 million tonnes, down from 39.3 million a year ago, while barley output was 5.9 million tonnes, down from 11.2 million. Bunker weight is normally 7-8 percent higher than the clean weight obtained after the grain is cleaned and dried, but the difference may be lower in hot and dry years, such as this one.
The drought also delayed the sowing of winter grains, which have been sown on 356,000 hectares compared to 964,800 hectares by August 25 2009. On Tuesday, the Hydrometcentre weather forecasting service said that rains will improve conditions for winter sowing in most of European Russia save for the Central Black Soil regions with very fertile soil.
The country officially expects to harvest 60-65 million tonnes of grain this year by clean weight, down from 97 million in 2009, although some analysts believe the crop may fall below 60 million tonnes. The country harvested 1.02 million tonnes of sugar beets since the start of the harvesting campaign which began earlier than a year ago because of the drought. Farmers also harvested 441,100 tonnes of rapeseeds by August 25, up from 266,200 tonnes a year ago, the ministry said.