Minister sees Russia’s grain harvest at 130 mln tns in 2023

MOSCOW, Sep 20 (PRIME) -- Russia’s grain harvest should amount to 130 million tonnes in 2023, and its grain exports from July 1 through June 30, 2024 should reach 60 million tonnes, Agriculture Minister Dmitry Patrushev said on Wednesday during a session of the parliament’s lower chamber State Duma.

Even taking into account the fact that the weather conditions in some regions are not the best, Russian farmers have already harvested 123 million tonnes of grain as of Wednesday exceeding the previous forecast of the ministry, he said.

“We understand that we will definitely achieve the goal of 130 million tonnes that was set by our president. … The grain harvest of 2023 would allow us to secure the internal market completely and to export up to 60 million tonnes of grain during the current season,” Patrushev said.

Speaking of exports, he said that Russia’s agricultural exports amounted to U.S. $31.3 billion in the period from January 1 through Wednesday. “We expect that Russia remains a net exporter of food this year,” he said.

At the same time, the situation with supplies of fuel and lubricants to Russian farmers has improved over the past 10 days, but the authorities still need to pay special attention to it, he said.

He also said that provision of cheap loans to farmers and agricultural companies should restart at the end of the September. The program for cheap agricultural loans was suspended earlier following the central bank’s decision to raise its key rate, but the Agriculture Ministry and the Finance Ministry found sources of additional financing for the program, Patrushev said.

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