Winter weather remains favourable for Russia's winter grain sowings so far, the head of weather forecaster Hydrometcentre said on Tuesday, indicating good prospects for the country's 2017 crop.
Russia, a major global wheat exporter, including to North Africa and the Middle East, harvested a record grain crop of 119.1 million tonnes in 2016 and sowed the largest area in seven years with winter grains for the 2017 crop due to the weather.
"The situation is quite favourable now," Roman Vilfand, the head of Hydrometcentre, told reporters in Moscow.
In the autumn, Russian farmers sowed winter grains on 17.4 million hectares, up from 16.3 million hectares the year before, and on 100 percent of the planned area.
Only about 3 percent of this area was considered to be in a bad condition when the winter started, compared with 9 percent in the previous year, Vilfand said.
"The soil moisture was quite good, and winter grains entered winter in quite good condition," he added.
Frosts, which were seen in part of Russia in early January, did not affect winter grain sowings, analysts have said.
Vilfand said these frosts had even helped sowings thanks to good snow cover.
For the rest of the winter, Russia is expected to have alternate frequent thaws and falls in the temperature to minus 20 Celsius (minus 4 Fahrenheit), he added.
Hydrometcentre will have a more detailed analysis of the sowings condition in mid-February.
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