Russia: Southern Russia starts winter barley harvest with lower yield

Farmers in Russia's southern regions have started harvesting winter barley with lower yield, though it may improve next week, SovEcon, one of the leading agriculture consultancies, said in a note on June 22.

Russia is expected to produce 19.9 million tonnes of barley in total in 2020, down from 20.5 million tonnes a year ago, SovEcon has said.

"It is too early to make any conclusion about yields at this stage, we should have a clearer picture next week," SovEcon said.

The starting yield in the Stavropol region in bunker weight is currently at 2.4 tonnes per hectare (t/ha), down from 3 t/ha a year ago. In the Krasnodar region, farmers report it at around 4 t/ha compared with 6 t/ha in 2019, the consultancy said.

Farmers in Russia have so far also planted spring barley on 7.9 million hectares, more than they originally planned, vs 8.0 a year ago, according to the agriculture ministry's data.

Speaking about weather conditions for Russia's upcoming 2020 grain crop in general, SovEcon said that they were slightly negative for the development of the winter grain sowings last week as rains were seen only in the southern regions, while other regions were mostly dry with temperatures 1-3 Celsius above norm.

Rains are expected in Russia's southern, central and Volga regions this week with temperatures close to normal level.

22 June, 2020