2019 Russia’s Grade 3 Wheat Crop hit Record High Volume Since 2008 !!!

https://www.agroinvestor.ru / Tatyana Kulistikova Agroinvestor December 9, 2019

Grade 3 wheat crop hit record high since 2008 !!!

However, improved grain quality could affect a slowdown in exports, with THE SHARE OF FOOD WHEAT EXCEEDED 82% !!!

From June 24 to the beginning of December, the Grain Quality Assessment Center examined 35.9 million tons of soft wheat in 51 regions of the country. The share of the 3rd class amounted to 32.9% of this volume, which was a record figure since 2008, the center said. Last year, grade 3 accounted for 23% of the examined wheat. The share of the 4th grade almost did not change: 46% against 46.6% in 2018, the 5th grade turned out to be less (20.7% and 27.4%). The share of wheat of the 2nd class decreased from 0.05% to 0.02%, but for the first time in seven years, grain of the 1st class was revealed , although its share is insignificant – 0.003%. In general, food wheat accounted for 78.9% of the surveyed volume, the Grain Quality Assessment Center calculated.

In turn, the branches of the Agricultural Center in 36 regions by the beginning of December had checked almost 15 million tons of wheat. According to their research, the share of the 3rd class was 37%, the 4th – 45%, the 5th – 18%. In the 1st and 2nd classes, a total of 0.17% accounted for 26.1 thousand tons. Most of all food wheat was found in the Urals Federal District – 95.4% of the tested volume, the least – 60.8% – in the Volga region, follows from the data of the Agricultural Center. On average, 82.2% of wheat fell to classes 1-4 in Russia, while a year earlier the figure was at 76%. In addition, this year the Russian Agricultural Center did not identify non-class wheat, while in 2018 its share was 0.4%.

Meanwhile, during the Agroinvestor organized by the Agro-Holdings of Russia conference, the director of the Sodruzhestvo management company, Alexander Shenderyuk-Zhidkov, drew attention to the fact that this year wheat exports are falling, despite an increase in gross harvest, precisely because farmers have grown high-quality grain. “As soon as we get high-quality wheat, we begin to compete with the French, the world market did not expect this,” the top manager said. – And when we begin to compete with the French, respectively, phytosanitary quality is also required of us on a par with them. Therefore, Russian wheat faces a challenge – weed control, we need to think about what we should do with quarantine facilities. ”

He added that given the generally negative attitude of the industry to the updates of the law “On Grain”, the measures proposed by the Ministry of Agriculture are probably the only solution to the problem. Earlier, the agrarian department published a draft amendment to the law, which envisages the creation of a single traceability system for all stages of production, storage and sale of grain and its processed products. Including it is supposed to issue quarantine certificates when moving grain and products of its processing throughout the country. Now it is necessary only when moving regulated products from quarantine phytosanitary zones.

According to the Center for Grain Quality Assessment, from the beginning of the season to December 3, Russia exported 22.9 million tons of grain and leguminous crops, which is 3.6 million tons or 13% less than the same period last season. Including shipments of wheat amounted to almost 19 million tons (-13%), barley – 2 million tons (-28%), corn – 1.2 million tons (+ 30%). The largest buyer of Russian wheat was Turkey with 4.3 million tons, followed by Egypt with 3.1 million tons and Bangladesh with 1.3 million tons.

According to the forecast of the Rusagrotrans analytical center, from December to the end of the season, grain deliveries abroad may amount to 19.5 million tons, which is 2.1 million tons more than a year earlier. Increased export prices for wheat, the exhaustion of the export potential of Ukrainian wheat, increased demand for Russian wheat from Egypt against the backdrop of high prices of competitors and the resumption of wheat supplies to Iran after a three-year hiatus will contribute to export growth, center director Igor Pavensky explained to Interfax.

At the Agroinvestor Agroholdings of Russia conference, Vice-President of the Russian Grain Union Alexander Korbut estimated grain export potential in the 2019/20 season at 46 million tons.  Although now the rate of shipments is behind the previous year, the situation may change in the second half of the season, as Russia’s main competitors in the world market are actively selling grain and reserves will remain only with us. In addition, higher prices will contribute to the export, said Korbut.

 

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