Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Friday said Russia had extended its grain export embargo until July but said the country has enough grain to meet its own needs. The Russian government imposed the export ban from August 15 to stabilise domestic prices after the worst drought in more than a century killed a significant part of the crop.
"Yesterday I signed a government resolution extending the moratorium on grain exports until July 1, 2011," Putin said in a televised government meeting on agriculture. He said Russia's grain crop was around 60 million tonnes this year, in line with earlier forecasts, down from 97 million tonnes in 2009 and 108 million in 2008.
"Despite the difficult conditions... Russia collected around 60 million tonnes of grain," Putin said, adding that Russia had enough grain to meet domestic demand for both food and livestock feed. Russia's drought sparked a rally in global grain markets in August, pushing wheat prices to their highest levels in two years after Moscow introduced its ban. Putin also said that subsidies for grain transportation would be continued until July 1.