MOSCOW: Sovecon, one of the leading agriculture consultancies in Moscow, on Friday raised its forecast for Russia's 2021 wheat crop by 1.4 million tonnes to 80.7 million tonnes due to improved crop conditions in the country's south.

Conditions in the south - Russia's largest wheat producing area - were improved by healthy precipitation, Sovecon said. Russia is one of the world's largest exporters of wheat.

"Wheat in the southern part of Russia entered last winter in the worst shape in a decade. However, the 2021 weather was favourable for the region, and crop conditions improved dramatically in recent months," Andrey Sizov, the head of Sovecon, said in a note.

However, this is not the case for Russia's central regions, "where farmers' pessimism over new crop has grown substantially after snow melted and they could start to inspect their fields," he added.

Sovecon added that it currently expects Russia's 2021 grain crop at 128.4 million tonnes, including 19.6 million tonnes of barley and 14.4 million tonnes of maize (corn).