Russia's grain crop was lower year-on-year as of July 20, due to delays caused by rains at the start of the harvesting period, but the gap was smaller than a week ago, Agriculture Ministry data showed on Friday. However, average grain yields had risen by 36 percent on year, the data showed, while the weather forecasting service said hot and dry weather favoured the harvesting campaign but worsened crop ripening conditions in the European part of Russia.
Farmers harvested 17.05 million tonnes of grain by bunker weight by July 20, down 6 percent from the 18.12 million harvested a year ago. A week ago the difference was much bigger. Grains have been reaped from 6.3 million hectares, or 10.4 percent of the total area, 1.6 million less than a year ago. But average yields achieved from the harvested area rose to 3.66 tonnes per hectare from 2.9 tonnes a year ago, the data showed.
The wheat crop as of July 20 was 11.4 million tonnes, 2.8 million tonnes less than a year ago, while average yields rose to 3.72 tonnes per hectare from 2.95 tonnes. Barley output was 1.9 million tonnes, up from 1.7 million a year ago, and yields rose to 4.08 tonnes per hectare from 3.35 tonnes.
Russia expects to harvest 85-90 million tonnes of grain this year, up from 61 million tonnes in 2010, when a third of the crop was lost because of a severe drought unrivalled in more than a century. Bunker weight used to measure the crop in the course of the harvesting is normally 5-7 percent higher than the clean weight obtained after grain is cleaned and dried, but the difference may be lower in hot and dry years. The weather forecasting service Rosgidromet said in a statement on Friday that hot and dry weather will favour harvesting in most of European Russia in the last 10 days of July but spring grain crop development conditions will worsen.