Russia's ministry of agriculture issued a draft budget
allocation of 1.35bn roubles to modernise greenhouses & dairy farms.
Novgorod's governor reported two investments worth
RUB 2.6bn (USD 400m) including an 800 cow dairy with an annual production of
7,000mt.
Russian agro holding Miratorg consider a project to produce 4m
pigs per year but acknowledge no clarity on state support.
Russian farming business Kuban Agro & European seed
producer Maïsadour Semences have agreed to launch a joint partnership seed business.
Russia's minister of agriculture signed an agreement with
VTB and SEMMARIS to create Russia’s largest wholesale food market
"Agropark Maksimikha", estimated to cost 40bn RUB. Construction will begin in the second half of
2016 and is scheduled to complete in 2018.
Russia's minister of agriculture report they will soon
bring back 10mha of unused agricultural land back in to production and that about 250kha of
agricultural land within in the Moscow suburbs are not currently in use. Putin threatens to withdraw land from unscrupulous owners of
agricultural land and sell it at auction saying it is necessary to put into circulation millions
of hectares of idle arable land. The minister of Karachayevo-Cherkessia responded by saying all his arable land is in active use while the deputy governor of Bryansk said 240kha of land
currently not in use could be brought back in to production.
Russia's agriculture minister reported this year they produced more wheat, sugar beet, vegetables and buckwheat, that it was a record harvest for maize, soya, oilseed flax and meat production is up 5%. He went on to report the current harvest was at about 102mmt of grain in net weight which will close domestic needs and retain export potential of 30mmt. He also mentioned that it is necessary to
increase the number of dairy cows by 1 million and to increase milk production by
6mmt within five years.
In 2015 Russian farmers purchased 2.4mmt of fertiliser, up
4% on 2014 and will purchase 2.6mmt in 2016, reported the deputy minister.
Russia's department of animal husbandry and breeding of
ministry of agriculture reports the provision of winter cattle feed is at more
than 100%.
Rosstat data reported that as of November 1, 2015, Russia’s
Grain stocks are 43.5mmt, the same as on October 1. At 43.5mmt Russia's November 1 grain stocks
represent one of the highest levels recorded in the last 5 years.
Russia & China have agreed delivery protocols for
Russian grain paving the way for exports to commence later this month.
Russia's deputy minister of agriculture says this year’s
lower than expected salmon catch was due to forecast errors and a number of
biological factors; sounds like someone is about to get the sack.
Russia’s deputy agricultural minister reports there are no
plan to restrict grain trade with Turkey although traders are being cagey about signing up new contracts not wanting to get caught up in an escalation of sanctions.
Meanwhile Russia returned 50mt of mandarin oranges to Turkey citing
contamination with fruit-fly larvae.
Russian pig business "Znamensky SGC" get around
sanctions by importing 29 Hypor boars from Canada; the lads travelled &
settled in well by all accounts.
Ukraine now and the deputy minister for European integration said that
"agriculture provides the largest share of foreign currency revenue" and that "this year Ukraine agri-exports totalled USD 13bn, almost 40%
of total exports".
Ukraine's agricultural minister said "by 2020 we plan to increase [exports] to 40-70mmt of grain [and] harvest 80-100mmt, our goal is to export over USD20bn".
Ukraine's agriculture ministry has fulfilled 80% of the planned
reforms for this year as part of the on going deregulation policy reports the National Council Reform project manager .
FAO report released this week paints a bleak picture for
small-scale, family-run farms in eastern Ukraine, the report can be found here.
Ukraine corn harvest now 97% complete at 22.4mmt with average
yield 5.6mt/ha, down from 6.0mt/ha in 2014, I wonder how much lower inputs played a part and if that will carry over into 2016 cropping?
This winters sowing progress was significantly lower and
slower compared to recent years.
Ukraine formally extends the ban on farmland sales until Jan 1, 2017 which should have come as no great surprise to anyone.