Page 93 - RPTRusFeb17

9.1.6 Agriculture sector news
China and Egypt moved up the ranking of Russia’s top trade partners to become the biggest buyers of Russian food exports in 2016 . The main consumers of Russian food last year were China (10.1%), Turkey (9.2%), Egypt (7.9%), South Korea (7.8%) and Kazakhstan (7.1%), according to estimates of the Russian Export Center (REC). All five were in the list for 2015, but that year Turkey was Russia’s biggest trade partner, RBC reports . China’s share in agricultural trade has been growing steadily but gradually from fourth place in 2013 to the top slot in 2016, when it imported food worth over $1.55bn, beating Turkey’s previous record of $1.37bn worth of imported Russian products. China’s growth is mainly based on its demand for grain, which is also the basis of Russian exports to Egypt and Turkey. Wheat accounted for 27.7% of food exports, frozen fish (12.9%), sunflower oil (9.5%) and maize (5.6%), according to REC. Russia also exports crabs (4.4% of total exports), chocolate products (3.1%), barley (2.8%), legumes (2.5%).
Russia has become the world’s biggest producer of beet sugar o utpacing France, the United States and Germany, Agriculture Minister Alexander Tkachev said at the government meeting on Thursday. "(Russia) has become the world’s top beet sugar producer ahead of France, the United States and Germany in this area" due to a record sugar beet harvest of more than 48 mln tonnes last year, he said. According to the ministry’s data, the country's sugar production totals 6 mln tonnes, compared with 5 mln tonnes produced by France, 4.8 mln tonnes - by the United States and 4.5 mln tonnes - by Germany. Tkachev said that almost 100,000 tonnes of sugar have been exported since the beginning of this season (August 1), a ten-fold increase compared with the full previous season (2015-2016). "We estimate export potential at more than 200,000 tonnes of sugar," the minister added.
Russia’s Agriculture Ministry has cut its 2018–2020 grain harvest forecast to 104mn tonnes in 2017. The previous best-case scenario said the 2017 harvest will amount to 107mn tonnes. The previous plan said Russia will harvest 110mn tonnes of grain in 2018, 113mn tonnes in 2019, and at 115mn tonnes in 2020. The amended edition sees the gross grain harvests at 104mn tonnes in 2017, 106mn tonnes in 2018, 108mn tonnes in 2019, and 110mn tonnes in 2020. The amendments also say that in 2016 Russia harvested 104mn tonnes of grain, while the Federal State Statistics Service said that it reached a record of 119.1mn tonnes.
The ministry expects Russia’s grain export potential at 30mn tonnes by 2020 , and the grain intervention fund at 4mn tonnes. In the 2015–2016 agricultural year, Russia exported 33.9mn tonnes of grain, including 24.6mn tonnes of wheat. In 2015, Russia’s grain crop amounted to 104.8mn tonnes. The ministry expects Russia’s grain export potential at 37.4mn tonnes in the 2016–2017 agricultural year as farmers harvested 119.1mn tonnes of grain, including 73.3mn tonnes of wheat.
The long-term agriculture development strategy sees Russia raising grain harvests to 130mn tonnes in 2030, or 150mn tonnes, with the crop yield rising to 30 hundredweights per hectare and sowing area growing to 50mn hectares. Grain exports are seen at 50mn tonnes in 2030.
The ministry also suggested the government cut financing for the
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