Agriculture minister sees Russia’s 2019 grain harvest at 118 mln tns

MOSCOW, Mar 14 (PRIME) – Russia will harvest no less than 118 million tonnes of grain in 2019, including 75–78 million tonnes of wheat, Agriculture Minister Dmitry Patrushev said in an article he contributed to PRIME on Thursday.

“Last year the grain harvest exceeded 113 million tonnes, significantly overshooting average annual figures for the past five years. This year we may harvest at least 118 million tonnes of grain, including 75–78 million tonnes of wheat,” he said.

Russia is the world’s top wheat exporter, it is among the leaders in exports of fish and sunflower oil, it is opening and winning new markets with its poultry, dairy, confectionery products, and other goods, he said.

Combined exports of agricultural products grew 20% to U.S. $25.9 billion in 2018, almost twice as much as exports of arms and weapons, winning Russia the status of an agricultural superpower back, Patrushev said.

But this is not the time for the government to stay idle. “We have an ambitious goal of raising exports of our agricultural industry to $45 billion by 2024. Russia has all the necessary capabilities for that today, we have resources, technologies, and mechanisms of state support,” he said.

Russian products enjoy high demand internationally, in part due to its high quality, he said.

The state agriculture program includes spending more than 300 billion rubles in 2019. “The federal project for support of agricultural exports encompasses provision of 406.8 billion rubles in the next six years. We also worked out additional measures of state support for small farms, and we will allocate more than 37 billion rubles on that until 2024,” he said.

(65.5890 rubles – U.S. $1)

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