Russian Agriculture Ministry expects record grain harvest

Russia plans to regain global leadership in terms of wheat export in 2017-2018 agriculture year, Russia's Agriculture Minister Alexander Tkachev said.

"As of today, grain exports have exceeded last year’s result by a third, more than 10 mln tonnes of grain have been exported, including almost 8 mln tonnes of wheat. The plan is to export almost 45 mln tonnes, including 30 mln tonnes of wheat if the global market situation remains favorable," the minister said.

"This year the cultivated area in Russia has exceeded the 80 mln hectares target for the first time in five years. As of today, 85% of the area under crops have already been reaped, almost 122 mln tonnes of grain have been threshed, and we can confidently say that an all-time record harvest is going to be gathered, including the Soviet era. A similar harvest - 127 mln tonnes - was gathered in Russia in 1978, though I have no doubts that we will beat this record this year," TASS cited him as saying.

Russia exported record 35.5 mln tonnes of grain in 2016-2017 agricultural year ended on June 30, including 27.1 mln tonnes of wheat.