Source: Oleoscope (Russia)
According to the Ministry of Agriculture on August 14, the harvest of cereals and legumes amounted to 73.5 million tons, which is 8.2 million tons less than in 2023, Interfax reports.
Grain was threshed on 22.5 million hectares, which corresponds to 46.9% of the total area and 116,600 hectares more than in the previous year. The average yield is 32.7 quintals per hectare compared to 36.7 quintals per hectare a year ago. Including wheat, 59.8 million tons were harvested, which is 3.2 million tons less than in the previous year. Crops were harvested on 17.1 million hectares (57.5%), which is almost 1.3 million hectares more than in 2023. However, yields are significantly lower – 39.8 quintals per hectare compared to 50.9 quintals per hectare,” reports Agroinvestor.
By 14 August, 8.8 million tons of barley had been harvested, which is 3.4 million tons less than a year ago. The decline is due to both the delay in harvesting areas and the lower yields. Barley was harvested on 2.9 million hectares (40.5%), which is 936.6 thousand hectares less than a year ago. The yield is 30.1 quintals/hectare compared to 31.6 quintals/hectare. The harvest of grain maize has only just begun. It was threshed on 2.3 thousand hectares (0.1%) and 7.9 thousand tons were harvested with a yield of 34 quintals/hectare. A year ago at this time, the maize had not yet been harvested.
“The harvest is quite tense this year, the weather is making its adjustments. But in general, we are satisfied with the pace,” the agency reports on the words of Deputy Minister of Agriculture Andrei Razin (quoted by TASS). At the same time, he noted that the quality of grain exceeds the indicators for 2023. Thus, more than 76% of grain, especially wheat, corresponds to classes 1-4 of food quality.
Dmitry Rylko, Director General of the Institute of Agricultural Market Economy (ICAR), pointed out that earlier the South caused serious concerns – experts expected a large amount of grain with low protein content, but the fears were not justified. In the center, the quality is not bad either – high protein content and low feed content are noted. “The combination of low feed content in the center and the south means that our livestock farmers have to look for wheat in a slight panic, as there is no feed in sufficient quantities,” Rylko told Agroinvestor. According to him, this intensifies competition for wheat with a protein content of 10.5-11.5% with exporters who had previously actively concluded contracts. “And then it turns out that this wheat is in short supply and is needed by livestock farmers, which, oddly enough, causes excitement in the market for wheat with a relatively low protein content in the south and in Siberia,” says Rylko.
According to Alexander Korbut, an independent expert on the grain market, the course of the harvest campaign is in line with expectations, and the decline in the gross harvest was predicted earlier. According to him, the decline in yields affects almost all regions where the mass harvest takes place. “The drop in income of agricultural producers due to the restrictive measures on cereals and oilseeds has led to the simplification of technologies. This is an additional factor in the decline in yields,” said Korbut.
SovEcon had previously lowered its forecast for Russian wheat production to a five-year low of 82.9 million tons. The sowing areas in the Siberian Federal District were revised the most.