Russia's winter grain sowing campaign for the 2017 crop has benefited from favourable weather so far this autumn, analysts said on Thursday, improving chances that the country could have a bumper harvest for a fourth year running. Crops in Russia, a major wheat exporter to North Africa and the Middle East, depend heavily on the weather conditions. The country produced more than 100 million tonnes of grain a year in 2014-2016 because a mild winter or good spring rains made up for damage done by an autumn that was too dry or too wet.
"The winter grain sowing campaign is running alright," Dmitry Rylko, the head of the IKAR agriculture consultancy, said. "I have not heard any major concerns from anyone because there is the experience of the previous couple of years: whatever the condition of winter grains in late October, the result will be the same in spring." Russian farmers, who plan to increase the area under winter grains for the 2017 crop by 6 percent from a year ago, have already sown 11.1 million hectares, or 64 percent of the total planned area of 17.35 million hectares, Agriculture Ministry data showed.
Sowing has been delayed by rain in recent days and is now running in line with last year's schedule, a state weather forecaster said. Heavy rain showers over the last 10 days in Russia's southern regions, the key grain producing and exporting belt, have slowed farming work but raised the level of soil moisture, said Anna Strashnaya, head of the agricultural department at state weather forecaster Hydrometcentre.
"In general, the moisture level is better than a year ago," Strashnaya said. "I think everything is going to be alright with the sowing." Russia's southern regions still have about a month to finish their winter grain sowing. The situation looks quite optimistic now, the head of Russia's Grain Union, a non-government farmers' lobby group, told reporters earlier this week.
"We will be praying that the weather allows crops to live through the winter just like in the previous season," Arkady Zlochevsky said on Wednesday. Last autumn farmers sowed a relatively small area of 16.3 million hectares due to dry weather, but then a mild winter and good rainfall in spring improved the condition of sowings. Russia has harvested 109.2 million tonnes of grain before drying and cleaning from 88 percent of the sown area so far this year.