SOCHI, Russia (Reuters) — Russia’s winter grains sowing campaign for the 2014 harvest, already delayed by rain in some regions, continues to fall behind its usual schedule, Russian agriculture minister Nikolay Fyodorov said on Friday.
The 2014 grain harvest in Russia, one of the world’s key wheat exporters, is at risk as the country has sown only 45 percent of the planned area of winter grains, or 18 million acres, down from 27 million acres at the same date a year ago.
“The delay is caused by rainy weather in some regions of Russia, where the ideal period for sowing is over,” Fyodorov told a meeting with his deputies.
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“The situation is not easy,” Fyodorov was quoted as saying in the ministry’s statement.
Due to the decrease in the sown area of winter wheat, Fyodorov offered to expand the area for corn and asked his deputies to speed up preparations for the government grain restocking program, which is currently expected to start during the first 10 days of October.
The minister did not comment on how much area of winter wheat had already been sown.
Russia’s current area sown with winter grains is at its lowest level for the last 13 years, SovEcon agricultural analysts said in a note.
SovEcon believes that the government’s forecast of 41 million acres of winter grains as a whole may prove to be too optimistic as some regions will not be able to make up for lost time.
Russia’s 2013 grain harvest is also delayed by rain in some regions, including Siberia, and there is a risk that its harvest will be lower than the official forecast of 90 million tonnes by clean weight, the head of Russia’s Grain Union said earlier on Friday.
The country has already harvested 76 million tonnes of grains, including 47 million tonnes of wheat, from more than 70 percent of the sown area.
