Russia’s
veterinary and phytosanitary service, Rosselkhoznadzor, are assessing the
quality of this year’s grain crop.
The reason,
they say, is because many experts have called into question the quality of this
year’s harvest without having any reliable data (me included) and, presumably,
they want to straighten the records with some reliable data.
The Centre for
Grain Quality Assessment is working on determining the quality of the new grain
crop in 40 major grain-producing regions of Russia.
Today they released
some information on barley quality with, I assume, wheat to follow on later.
I’ll be
honest here and say that it’s a bit tricky to penetrate and translate the data
but this is what I think they are saying.
Barley is
divided into two classes: 1st class for human consumption and 2nd
class for feed and alcohol production (that will be industrial alcohol and not
malting).
This year 2.5mmt
of barley has been assessed or 38% of the gross yield from the sampling region
resulting in 1st class 4%; 2nd class 96%.
Last year
the survey assessed 47% of the gross yield from the sampling region resulting
in 1st class 14%; 2nd class 86%.
The Centre
for Grain Quality Assessment say “today we are witnessing a shift in the
balance of classes for barley from 1 toward 2 compared with previous years” but
warns us that that such a transfer “should not be a cause for excitement as the
information will still be supplemented and refined”.
Don't know about you but a shift from 14% to 4% is pretty exciting to me, can't wait for the wheat results (I probably should get out more).