Russian Agriculture Ministry may revise plans for grain export in current season

The Ministry of Agriculture of Russia may revise plans for the export of grain in the current season. This was stated today by Minister of Agriculture Dmitry Patrushev at an off-site meeting of the Operational Headquarters of the Russian Agriculture Ministry in the Republic of Bashkortostan, the participants of which discussed the course of the harvesting campaign in the country.

 As the Minister noted, work was currently underway in all federal districts. 27% of the area has been harvested, and farmers have harvested about 55 million tons of grain. The current yield is generally not bad, but the volume of grain harvested at the moment is noticeably less than a year ago.

 “In aggregate, all this creates risks in terms of achieving the grain harvest of 130 million tons. We will fully provide our market, of course, there will be no problems with this. However, if the planned volumes are not achieved, we will have to revise our export plans of 50 million tons. This may have a negative impact on the world grain market," Dmitry Patrushev emphasized.

 According to him, the situation in global markets is quite complicated, especially for wheat. This season, due to several reasons, including drought in the US and Europe, floods in Australia and bad weather in India, the world supply of milling wheat will decrease. Also, due to climatic anomalies, a decrease in the wheat quality in North America is expected, primarily in the United States. All this, combined with logistical restrictions, can lead to serious risks in terms of global food security in the current agricultural year.

The Minister urged representatives of the regions to do everything possible for high-quality and timely harvesting. In addition, it is necessary to intensify preparations for next year's fieldwork. The Ministry of Agriculture has already begun to form plans for the subjects to purchase domestically selected seeds of sunflower, sugar beets, soybeans, corn, and rapeseed for the sowing season of 2023. These plans will be under the constant control of the department.

Author: Azat Gizzatullin