June 21 (Reuters) – Russia-focused agriculture consultancy Sovecon said on Tuesday that it had raised its forecast for Russia’s 2022 wheat crop by 0.6 million tonnes to a new record high of 89.2 million tonnes amid an improved outlook for the spring wheat harvest.
Russia is the world’s largest wheat exporter supplying it to the Middle East and Africa. Its farmers are expected to start harvesting the new wheat crop in coming days.
“The next several weeks will be extremely important for the new Russian wheat crop forecasts. We will start to get the first yield numbers from the southern regions,” Andrey Sizov, the head of Sovecon, said in a note.
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Sovecon raised its estimate of Russia’s spring wheat sowing area to 12.65 million hectares from 12.10 million, and raised its forecast for the crop’s yields to 1.82 tonnes per hectare from 1.70 as the weather improved in the Volga region and the Urals.
An improved outlook for spring wheat will fully offset growing problems for winter wheat, Sovecon said. It cut its estimate for the winter wheat yield to 3.89 tonnes per hectare from 4.00 due to dry and hot weather in Russia’s south, the country’s breadbasket.
