MOSCOW: Russian wheat export prices fell last week under pressure from the approaching new crop and lower global benchmarks, analysts said on Monday.

The world's largest wheat exporter, which competes with the European Union and Ukraine and others on supplies to Africa and the Middle East, is expected to start wheat harvesting in one or two weeks.

"It looks like Russian traders are getting more confident about the new crop," the SovEcon consultancy said in a note.

Russia's agriculture ministry raised its forecast for the 2020 grain crop last week.

Russian wheat with 12.5% protein loaded from Black Sea ports was at $202 a tonne free on board (FOB) at the end of last week, down $3 from the previous week, SovEcon said..

Another consultancy, IKAR, pegged wheat for supply in August at $199 a tonne, down $7 from the previous week.

Barley prices fell by $1 to $173 a tonne, SovEcon said.

Russia's southern regions started harvesting winter barley at a lower yield than at the same time last year, though the siituation could improve next week.

Russia exported 35.7 million tonnes of grain between July 1 last year and June 19, down 15% year on year, SovEcon said. Of this, wheat exports accounted for 30.4 million tonnes.

SovEcon raised its forecast for Russia's 2020 sunflower seed crop last week after June rains.