Russia: pessimistic forecast totals 60 million tons

Moscow / RU. (ami) The pessimistic forecast of grain production in Russia in 2010 of the Ministry of Agriculture of the Russian Federation totals 60 million tonnes, the optimistic forecast 65 to 67 million tonnes, depending on harvesting works in Siberian regions, where the harvesting campaign has just begun, declared Alexander Petrikov, the Deputy Minister of Agriculture of the Russian Federation, on August 23. As a reminder, last year Russia produced 97 million tonnes of grains. As of August 23, 2010, Russia harvested 40,7 million tonnes of grains in bunker weight, down 17,8 million tonnes compared to the same date of the previous year. To date, the droughts occupy 35 regions of the country; 11,15 million hectares of agricultural lands suffered from the natural disaster (26 percent from the general sowing areas of the country). According to the Deputy Minister, the domestic grain consumption in Russia totals 77 million tonnes per year. Taking into account the forecast and grain carry-over stocks at the level of 23 million tonnes, and grain intervention reserves at the level of 9,5 million tonnes, Russia will completely satisfy the domestic requirements in grain volumes (source: agrimarket.info).