MOSCOW: Russia harvested 125 million tons of grain and legumes, including 82 million tons of wheat, in clean weight, in 2024, down 13% from last year, data from statistical agency Rosstat showed on Thursday.
The data does not include harvest from the territories Russia annexed from Ukraine. Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Patrushev estimated in October that these territories will add 5 million tons to the overall grain harvest this year.
The breakdown of the harvest data by regions shows that areas in Russia’s east fared better this year than the traditional bread basket regions in the south and in the centre.
The harvest in Russia’s biggest grain-producing region, Rostov, which was hit by bad weather from early spring frosts to drought this year, was down by almost 30%.
Harvest in the Kursk region, Russia’s seventh-largest grain-producing region, which was targeted in Ukraine’s incursion into Russia’s territory last August, was down by 22%.
Voronezh, Russia’s fifth grain-producing region, was hit particularly hard among the top producing regions, with its grain harvest down by 38%.
Russia officially estimates this year’s grain harvest at 130 million tons, including the harvest from the annexed territories, which brings its statistical data broadly in line with the government’s estimate.
The wheat harvest is also down by 13%, according to Rosstat’s data. Russia is the world’s largest wheat exporter, supplying the grain mainly to markets in the Middle East and North Africa. Grain-producing regions in the Urals mountains and Siberia fared much better with Altai, Russia’s ninth producing region, showing growth of 23%, and Omsk in Siberia becoming the fastest-growing producing region, with growth at over 50%.
Sovecon agriculture consultancy said this week that Russian wheat exports will fall by 17% to 36.4 million tons in the 2025/26 exporting season due to a poor harvest and low carry-over stocks. Russia’s IKAR agricultural consultancy said on Thursday it saw 2025/26 wheat exports at 41 million metric tons in a baseline scenario, down from 43.5 million tons expected in the current season, and grain exports at 52 million tons.
Russia’s share of the global wheat trade would fall to 20% in 2024/2025 exporting season from 25% in the previous season as a result, it added, stressing that the country will remain the world’s leading wheat exporter.
In the 2023/24 season Russia exported a record 54.3 million tons. The agency said that there was “a record uncertainty regarding the future harvest of winter crops in the country for 2025”, due to a lack of moisture in the soil during the autumn.
Despite the lower harvest this year, Russia continued to export a record volume of wheat in July-December 2024, with exports reaching 28.5 million tons, according to IKAR. Russian exports are expected to slow down in the second part of the season, due to the government’s measures to curb exports such as low export quotas and high export duty.
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