Wheat - 83.8MMT from 27.2MHA (92.3%) at a yield of 3.09MT/HA.
Barley - 21.3MMT from 7.8MHA (91.7%) at a yield of 2.72MT/HA.
Corn - 1.9MMT from 0.5MHA (16%) at a yield of 4.11MT/HA.
Sunflower - 3.2MMT from 1.9MHA (22%) at a yield of 1.70MT/HA.
Soybean - 1.6MMT from 0.8MHA (30%) at a yield of 1.89MT/HA.
Wheat - harvest finished, 26.96MMT from 6.5MHA at a yield of 4.11MT/HA, clean weight will be around 26.2MMT to 26.4MMT and is down nearly 10% on last year.
Barley - harvest finished at 8.7MMT from 2.3MHA at a yield of 3.69MT/HA, down 8% on last year.
Corn - started 10 September, 0.3% cut to date producing 74.6KMT at a yield of 3.93MT/HA.
Sunflower - started end of August, 19% cut producing 1.9MMT at a yield of 1.64MT/HA.
Soybean - started 3 September, 9.2% cut producing 217KMT at a yield of 1.76MT/HA.
The report covers Russian and Ukraine harvest progress and
includes our updated crop forecasts.
The next report will cover the new season winter crop condition, how it's coping with the dry weather and the pace of planting.
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The last trip I went on, pre-lockdown, was also to Moldova, 184 days ago!
It was good to finally be back in the fields looking at crops, although I say good, shocking might be a better description.
Rainfall has been conspicuous by its absence, even the trees are suffering.
Wheat yield was down around 50%; sunflowers down 70%; half the corn crop has failed, plants grew but cobs didn’t form, (presumably linked to high heat at pollination, exacerbated by drought); yet the guys on the farm are saying we haven’t done too badly compared to other regions!
Farmers have been protesting to the government looking for support or some leeway on contracts, not sure they will get it though.
Across the western border in Romania and it’s a similar story; yields are down; recently planted winter oilseed rape is sitting in the desiccated soils doing nothing; one region had declared a state of emergency saying all crops there had died.
Across the eastern border to Ukraine and early harvest yields for spring crops doesn’t look good, particularly in the south and west of the country around Cherkasy, Odesa, and Kirovograd.
Further east still and reports from Russia’s key wheat growing and export region are of very dry conditions with recently planted wheat crops struggling to germinate and establish.
A pal from there described it as a disaster in the making with no rain for months and everything burning up.
I’m hoping we can run our October tour when we can make a more measured post-planting, pre-winter assessment of the crop condition.
Watch this space for tour updates.
In attendance were Deputy PM Viktoria Abramchenko, Minister
of Agriculture Dmitry Patrushev, and representatives from regional governing
bodies, federal authorities, supervisory agencies, unions, scientific and
banking communities, and public organisations.
Abramchenko said that one of the most important tasks was to
increase exports, and pointed out that Russian agricultural products are supplied
to 160 countries in the Middle East, East and South Asia, Africa, the EU, and
the CIS.
She went on to say the target was to double agro-exports by
2024 and key to this was bringing unused agricultural land back into circulation.
Last week, the Ministry reported that since 2013, more than
360 thousand hectares of abandoned and overgrown land had been brought back
into cultivation in the Moscow region alone.
You need to be cautious of these numbers, regional governors
trying to remain in favour may take “abandoned and overgrown” to mean land
that has only been fallow for a short time and over-report.
However, if you are looking for an indication of what
direction the worlds largest wheat exporter wants to take its agriculture, they
are pretty much telegraphing it.
My view on this, if you want to expand your farming
operations, the Ministry is unlikely to get in your way…too much.
Back at the meeting and it was reported that in 2019,
Russian farmers harvested over 121 million tons of grain, which was the second-largest
harvest in post-Soviet history.
Patrushev said despite difficult weather conditions, the current
harvest stands at 101 million tons of grain, and harvesting rates and yields
are well above 2019.
Not strictly true, with 25% of the wheat harvest still to
go, yields are falling and approaching 2019 and 2018 levels, and could go
lower.
Concluding his speech, the Minister of Agriculture said, in
recent years agriculture had shown steady growth, and that they had changed the
perception of farming as an unprofitable and risky industry, to that of a
modern and profitable business.
That’s only one dry year away from being reversed though.
Previously the European Commission’s greening requirements required farmers to carry out specified practices to qualify for additional payments.
The UK plans to end the need to comply with the EU-delivered greening requirements and move towards the ELM scheme, which they say will deliver greater benefits for the environment.
The transition period will last for seven years and see Direct Payments to farmers in England phased out and replaced with a new system that rewards farmers for delivering public goods, such as tree or hedge planting, river management to mitigate flooding, and creating or restoring habitats for wildlife.
The Environment Secretary, George Eustice, said the EU greening requirements added little to the environment, which seems an odd thing to say given that Twitter is full of farmers proudly showing off their wildflower margins.
The Environment Secretary’s main focus on the benefits of the transition from an EU subsidy system to a UK subsidy system seems to be on reducing the administrative burden for farmers and vague statements about delivering public goods.
Most UK farmers I talk to readily admit that while the form filling is a bit of a drag, pound for pound it easily gives the best rate of return for hours worked.
Also defining and measuring public goods seems to me like a recipe for more red tape not less.
Further details on plans for the agricultural transition period will be set out in Autumn 2020.
Ukrainian agricultural producers have already harvested 41.2MMT of crops from 10.9MHA, of which cereals and legumes account for 38.4MMT.
The Ukrainian Hydrometeorological Center said dry weather and a lack of moisture in the soil has had a direct impact on crop yield, but, to make sure they cover all bases, May rains meant the forecast harvest remains optimal for domestic consumption and exports to foreign markets.
On the face of it, these endless meetings and reports of meetings, seem to serve little real purpose and look more like a hangover from former times, but it would be nice to see a broad update on food security from our own government from time to time.
Show they take it seriously.