Elevators in the Urals overflowing with unmarketable grain

23.03.2010 — News

THE SVERDLOVSK OBLAST.

The Russian Ministry for Agriculture is planning to gather data from all the regions of the country on the remains of grain from the last year's crops. Due to low market prices warehouses and elevators are overflowing with grain. 

Agrarians in the Kurgan Oblast cannot sell more than 500 thousand tons of grain. The surplus in the Chelyabinsk oblast exceeds 100 thousand tons. The State grain investments have not yielded any positive effect on the grain market in the Sverdlovsk Oblast. While the cost of the product is 4.53 roubles per kilo the market price has settled around 2.8-3.5 roubles. 60 thousand tons of grain remain unsold.

Ilya Bondarev, the Minister for Agriculture of the Sverdlovsk Oblast, told RusBusinessNews that the problem with grain sales affect the volumes of chemical fertilizer purchases. By the middle of March 2009 the agrarians in the region bought 11.2 thousand tons of fertilizers, this year this figure is 1.5 times lower. Similar situation is forming in the Tyumen, Chelyabinsk, and Kurgan Oblasts. 

According to the data provided by the Russian Ministry for Agriculture 5% of the Russian total crops have been harvested in 2009 in the Urals Federal District, that is 5.3 million tons of grain and pulses.