Mild temperature continues to reduce snow cover across
Russia and Ukraine.
Reuters report "Chicago wheat slid on Monday, on track
for its biggest three-day fall since mid-December, although worry over lack of
protective snow cover in the United States and Russia limited decline."
Russia’s Ministry of Agriculture report the first 100,000MT
of grain has been transported at a reduced rate in accordance with the new
policy on subsidising grain rail transport and included grain from Novosibirsk
(52KMT), Omsk (35KMT), Orenburg (3 KMT) and Tambov (9KMT).
Russia’s Ministry of Agriculture report the sowing of winter
crops for the harvest of 2018 is 17.4 million hectares, which corresponds to
the same level as last year.
Russia’s Federal Service for Hydrometeorology and
Environmental Monitoring report winter crops are in good and satisfactory
condition on an area of 16.24 million hectares (95% of the total sown area).
The Deputy Minister of Agriculture gave insight into Russian
agricultural policy yesterday when he said, "We face a serious challenge -
not only to maintain the accelerated pace of development of the agrarian
sector, but to provide conditions for its further growth.”
Eastern Europe’s largest biogas plant has opened in Western
Ukraine, the Khmelnytskiy plant will convert manure, corn silage and sugar beet
pulp into 15.6 mw of electricity, enough to power 16,000 households in the
region.
Ukraine’s first solar plant located in the Chernobyl
exclusion zone is to go on stream within weeks; the one-megawatt, 1.6ha site
can cover the needs of a medium-sized village although plans are to eventually
produce 100 times this.
The Times report Russian gas imported to Britain last year
could be going to America as freezing weather in the US send prices soaring; a
tanker carrying liquefied natural gas from storage facilities in Kent appeared
to be heading to Boston, although its destination could yet change
The Ukrainian weather centre report that due to the
influence of the Arctic air, the air temperature in Ukraine will gradually
decrease starting from the beginning of the week.
Quote of the week; Benjamin Bodart from @CRMagri discussing this year’s wheat export market, "More than one in three tonnes exported in the world will be from the Black Sea region.”