UPDATE: Russian min sees 2017–2018 grain exports at 38 mln tns

(Adds data on agricultural output in last three paragraphs)

MOSCOW, Aug 7 (PRIME) -- Russia’s grain exports can amount to 38 million tonnes in the 2017–2018 agricultural year starting on July 1, 2017, Agriculture Minister Alexander Tkachyov told channel Rossiya 24 in an interview broadcast on Monday.

“We will be able to reach an about 38 million tonne grain exports level, this is a significant increase,” Tkachyov said.

Tkachyov said earlier that grain exports may exceed 35 million tonnes in the period.

He forecasted a 103–105 million tonne harvest in 2017–2018. “We hope that the autumn will be dry, not as rainy as the spring and the summer and that we will be able to harvest, since there is grain in the field. There is a goal to reach the technical maximum and leave nothing in the field in these extreme conditions.”

Tkachyov also said that Russia’s agricultural output will grow 3.5–4.0% in 2017.

“This year is tough: we see it from the weather and calamities. We have had a quite late spring and the terms have shifted to a certain degree. Sure, we hope very much that the autumn will be warm and that we will be able to harvest wheat and other crops. We preliminarily appraise the growth rate of this year no worse than over the last several years, I mean, at about 3.5–4.0%,” the minister said.

He earlier estimated the agriculture expansion at 4.8% in 2017.

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