Russia's grain sowing at record low due to late spring

Russia's grains sowing is at a record low because of a late spring but the campaign is accelerating, Agriculture Ministry data obtained by Reuters on Friday showed. The 2.65 million hectares of spring grains sown by April 28 represent just eight percent of the 30.2 million hectare target and is down from 3.11 million by the same date a year earlier.
Lagging last year by 0.46 million hectares marked an improvement from a week earlier when sowing was running 0.68 million hectares behind. "The sown area is still record low," said Andrei Sizov Sr., CEO and president of agricultural analysts SovEcon. "However, because of warm weather the sowing campaign has started earlier than usual in Siberia, which may result in an increase of the sowings area in this part of the country. Russia officially plans to harvest 85-90 million tonnes of grain this year.
Last year's drought cut the crop to 60.9 million tonnes from 97 million tonnes in 2009 and 108 million in 2008. SovEcon expects the spring sowing area to reach 28.5-29.5 million hectares this year, which is above the record low acreage of 28.1 million hectares sown last year, but below the official forecast of 30.2 million.