Russia, one of the world's largest wheat exporters, may harvest 100 million tonnes of grain in 2016, agriculture consultancy SovEcon said on Tuesday, citing preliminary estimates. Russian officials are yet to issue their estimate for the 2016 crop, but the country's winter grains are currently in a better condition than last year, a state weather forecaster Hydrometcentre said on Monday, easing concerns over the next year's harvest.
SovEcon sees this year's grain crop at 103.7 million tonnes, of which 30 million tonnes will be available for export in the 2015/16 marketing year which started on July 1, according to material prepared for its conference in Moscow. Its estimate of this year's grain crop is higher than the agriculture ministry's forecast of 101.5 million tonnes by clean weight. Russian farmers have already harvested 108 million tonnes before drying and cleaning. SovEcon also estimated this year's wheat crop at 61.1 million tonnes with exports of 20.5 million tonnes.