UPDATE 2: Medvedev says Russia’s 2017 grain harvest may hit all-time record

(Adds details in last two paragraphs)

MOSCOW, Oct 4 (PRIME) -- Russia’s 2017 grain harvest may set an all-time record, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said on Wednesday at an agricultural exhibition.

“The Agriculture Ministry is sure that we will have a record harvest of grain this year. The latest data shows that we have threshed more than 126 million tonnes of grain,” he said.

“This is not just more than we had last year. In fact, it means that we may set a record figure for the past 100 years. And we don’t even know what was before the 100 years ago. It is very likely to become the record for the entire history. This is great.”

In 2017, the government spent 242 billion rubles on support of agriculture, and plans to increase the spending in 2018. “We will try not to just keep the level of support next year, but increase it. These parameters have already been included in the state budget,” he said.

Russia is close to fulfilling its food security doctrine and has returned its position among the world’s leading agricultural producers, he said.

Agriculture Minister Alexander Tkachyov said that Russia’s grain harvest may reach 130 million tonnes in 2017. “A crop yield of 127 million tonnes is not the limit…It may reach even 130 (million tonnes),” he said.

In 2016, Russia harvested a record 120.7 million tonnes of grain in net weight, including 73.3 million tonnes of wheat. On Tuesday, Pyotr Chekmaryov, head of the Agriculture Ministry’s crop farming department, said that the wheat harvest may amount to 80 million tonnes in net weight this year.

Since the introduction of a food import ban in 2014 in retaliation to the Western sanctions, Russia has cut food imports by U.S. $20–25 billion, Tkachyov said. “I will not forget my feelings when we worked in conditions of the old regime, without the sanctions, with the dollar costing 30 (rubles), when the whole economically strong world used Russia as a site to sell products,” he said.

“They made a lot of money on Russia. We are calling a spade a spade, and the figure amounts to about $20–25 billion, we have already substituted it over the past years,” he said, adding that Russia’s agricultural exports may grow to $20 billion in 2017 from $17 billion in 2016.

(57.9375 rubles – U.S. $1)

End