Russia has harvested 14.6 million tonnes of grain by bunker weight in the year to date, the Agriculture Ministry said on Monday, lower than a year ago when farmers had to accelerate harvesting due to drought. The Ministry did not provide a comparison to year-ago acreage, but last year it said the country had harvested 21 million tonnes of grain by July 20.
Bunker weight is used to measure the crop in the course of the harvesting and is normally 5-7 percent higher than the clean weight obtained after grain is cleaned and dried.
Average grain yields were 3.7 tonnes per hectare, the ministry said. A year ago the yields were 2.8 tonnes per hectare. The wheat crop by July 18 was 8.4 million tonnes, down from 15 million tonnes a year ago, while barley output was 1.7 million tonnes, down from 2.1 million tonnes.
Wheat yield rose to 3.7 tonnes per hectare from 3.2 tonnes, while barley yield rose to 4.0 tonnes per hectare from 3.8 tonnes. Russia aims to produce up to 90 million tonnes of grain by clean weight this year, up from 61 million in 2010.