12 May 2004 01:29
Minister predicts Russian grain harvest of 73-76m tonnes
Moscow, 12 May: Russia's 2004 grain harvest is expected at 73-76m tonnes, acting Agriculture Minister Aleksey
Gordeyev told President Vladimir Putin Wednesday [12 May], the Kremlin press service said. The forecast is generally in
line with the minister's month earlier estimate, when he put the output at 75m tonnes. Gordeyev did not specify
whether the volume was expected in bunker or clean weight. The latter is usually around 8 per cent lower due to cleaning
and drying of grain.
Gordeyev said the expected output would be sufficient to meet domestic consumption and export some of it abroad, but
did not elaborate. Last year, Russia's grain output declined to 67.2m tonnes in clean weight, down from 86.6m in
2002. The forecast is preliminary, and could be corrected in late May, when the spring grain planting campaign ends.
Grain crops are expected to be planted on 34m hectares, or 2m more than last year. The government targets an increase in
corn [maize] and soya bean areas to diminish Russian imports of these cultures.
The government will finalize in June the parameters of the intervention grain buying, which could start in August.
The interventions will be aimed at preventing considerable price declines after the harvest. Gordeyev did not comment on
the volume of Russian grain exports. In March, he said exports in the coming marketing year were likely to remain
unchanged on the year.
Russia emerged as a big grain exporter in the 2002-03 marketing year (July-June), shipping abroad around 17m tonnes
of grain. In July-January 2003-04, exports amounted to around 6.5m tonnes, while the overall 2003-04 exports are
expected at over 7m tonnes.
[Prime-TASS news agency] |
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