MOSCOW: Russian agriculture consultancy IKAR has downgraded its forecast for Russia's 2021 wheat crop to 79.5 million tonnes from 81 million tonnes, it said on Thursday.

Russia competes with the European Union for the rank of the world's largest wheat exporter.

The forecast was lowered as farmers will need to resow wheat on a large area of Russia's central region after the winter, IKAR said in a note.

More than 700,000 hectares, about 18% of the region's total area, will be up for potential replanting, though IKAR said it expected the actual resowed area to be smaller.

There are other places where plantings in fields are "not in an optimal shape," it added.

Russian farmers were sowing winter grains in dry soil last autumn due to lack of rains. Some of their sowings were also affected by a rapid shift of weather from frosts to warmer temperatures in late winter, IKAR said.

Sovecon, another Moscow-based consultancy, also said earlier this week that farmers in some Russia's central regions reported that a high percentage of their winter wheat sowings were in bad condition after winter.