MOSCOW, May 20 (PRIME) – Russia’s grain harvest will shrink to 120 million tonnes in 2020 from 121.2 million tonnes a year earlier, Agriculture Minister Dmitry Patrushev told President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday at a meeting devoted to the situation in the agricultural and food industries.
“We hope that Russia’s grain crop will amount to 120 million tonnes in 2020,” he said.
In January, the ministry projected a 125.3 million tonne grain harvest in the year.
Putin said that the grain harvest outlooks are good and that Russia’s food self-reliance is complete.
“Russia has harvested over 100 million tonnes of grain annually over the past six years. We have good harvest outlooks this year, too… Russia provides itself with staple food fully, it enters the global markets gradually, and is one of the world’s leading exporters in some food categories,” he said.
Partushev said that none of the Russian regions has faced problems with food supplies.
Putin also said that it is important to maintain the farm industry’s strategic goals and to raise competitiveness of the domestic agriculture.
“In the present difficult conditions of the Russian and the global economies, it is important to keep the development dynamics of the agricultural complex… We must ensure secure supplies to the domestic market, and use new opportunities, which have now open for our companies, including exports,” he said.
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