Russian expects 95m tonnes grain output

The Russian Agriculture Ministry expects a good harvest of crops this year of around 95 million tonnes following good preparatory work. Russian Grain Federation Chairman Arkady Zlochevsky, in a media statement on Monday said, this year’s harvest could be similar to that in 2011 around 94.2 million tonnes after the sharp decline in volume to 707 million tonnes last year due drought in most regions of the country. Russia will not be able to export more than 14.8 million tonnes of grain in the current season 2012-2013, compared to the previous season (2011-2012) which saw a post-Soviet record output of 27.2 million tonnes. According to the Russian Ministry of Agriculture that Russia exported 13.6 million tons of grain since the beginning of the current agricultural season during July 2012 and until mid-February 2013.