IKAR in Mass and Industry Media

Dry weather persists in some Russian grain regions

Reuters

MOSCOW, May 20 (Reuters) - Lack of rain persists in some Russian grain growing regions, an analyst said on Monday, while Russia's state forecaster warned of a danger of wildfires.

Traditionally the world's third-largest wheat exporter, Russia needs to replenish stocks this year after it lost one-third of last year's wheat crop due to drought during the second half of May and early June.

This year hot and dry weather has persisted in some agricultural regions since early May but has not triggered downgrades to harvest estimates yet.

"The situation (in these regions) looks very mixed, but as a whole there was less rain than had been expected (during the weekend)," Andrei Sizov, the head of agriculture consultancy SovEcon said. "This week may be crucial for winter grains."

The possibility of wildfires remains very high in the Voronezh region of the Central Federal District and in the Volgograd region of the Southern District, the Federal Hydrometeorological Centre said.

A part of Stavropol region, Russia's second-largest for grain growing, is seeing a lack of rain, Sizov said. The state forecaster expects light rain in the region on Monday and on May 24 with more rain possible during the coming weekend.

In the Krasnodar region, Russia's largest for wheat and cereal exports via the Black Sea, conditions for the crop were good and improved after heavy rain last weekend, Sizov said.

Russia's Institute for Agricultural Market Studies (IKAR) raised its 2013 grain crop forecast by 2 percent to 92 million tonnes on Monday due to a bigger-than-expected harvest in Krasnodar.

SovEcon is keeping its 2013 grain crop forecast unchanged at 83-89 million tonnes, up from last year's 71 million, Sizov said.

20.05.13

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