Approximately 5-6 million tons of grain cannot be transported from the Russian south due to technological limitations linked with the threat of African swine flu spreading. This may lead to rising grain prices in drought-stricken regions of Russia, president of the Russian grain union Arkady Zlochevskiy said at an annual conference ‘Agroholdings of Russia’, RIA Novosti reports.
The southern regional center of the Russian Emergencies Ministry said on Friday that new swine flu sources may appear in most of the subjects of the South and North Caucasian Federal Districts.
Zlochevskiy reminded that Russia has an exceptional misbalance of inter-regional grain distribution: it has grain surplus in the south equal to 14 million tons and a shortage of 6 million tons in Siberia. Volga Region, Central Russia and North-Western Region will have a grain shortage of 18-19 million tons next season due to droughts.
Veterinary services demand thermal processing of grain from the southern regions. The processing has a maximum capacity of 100 tons per hour. Taking into account the infrastructure, approximately 5-6 million tons of grain will not leave the region until the end of the season due to technical complications.
Unloading in the southern region cannot exceed 10 000 – 12 000 tons daily, when 40 000 tons are needed. Zlochevskiy said that the Volga Region, Central Russia and the North-Western Region will have a price for grain rising to 9 000 rubles per ton.
The African swine flu has been registered in five districts of Kuban (Krasnoarmeyskiy, Temruk, Starominsk, Kurgan and Novopokrovskiy), in one district of the Volgograd Region (Serafimovicheskiy) and one in Rostov Region (Morozovskiy).
Rostov Region registered outbreaks of the flu in 18 out of 55 municipalities. 49 400 pigs were killed.
The African swine flu, Montgomery flu, was first registered in 1903 in South Africa. It affects domestic and wild pigs. It spreads via physical contact. The virus is of no threat to humans but carries great harm to economy.
