Page 138 - RusRPTAug22
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9.1.6 Agriculture sector news
Russia is on track for a bumper harvest this year of 126mn tonnes of grain after the 2022-2023 agricultural marketing year got underway on July 1. Farmers in Russia's leading grain region of Rostov on Don say wheat yields are high as harvesting starts, Reuters reports.
Russia is expected to produce a near record crop in 2022 and have record amounts to export, but down from the all-time high harvest of 2018 that brought in 135mn tonnes.
"The crop prospects are good," Viktor Goncharov, first deputy governor of the region told Reuters, adding that wheat yields are so far 0.1-0.2 tonnes per hectare higher than a year ago. "Weather, readiness of equipment - everything is favourable." Russian 2022-23 winter and spring wheat production — excluding from the disputed region of Crimea, annexed from Ukraine in 2014 — is projected at 85.37mn t, against 84.74mn t and 80.6mn t expected in April and November last year, respectively, under the most recent estimates from Argus' agricultural advisory arm, Agritel.
Russian output for the coming year would be 10mn t higher than 2021-22, with the winter wheat harvest projected at a record 64.4mn t. This would be a result of particularly good crop conditions
138 RUSSIA Country Report October 2020 www.intellinews.com