Russian plans to lower wheat planting in 2023/24, targets 80-85m mt

Russia is planning to lower the area planted with wheat in 2023/24 to stabilize the domestic market and prices, although the total sown area is still expected to be higher than in the current year, an official note on the agriculture ministry website showed Tuesday.

The government believes the area planted with wheat should be reduced by half a million hectares (ha) for the next campaign.

In 2022 around 29.5 million ha were planted with wheat, while a record 105.7 million mt were harvested from 29.2 million ha so far.

The decision also comes as winter wheat planting for the current season has been already finished on 15.6 million ha.

“This is necessary to maintain the balance of prices and stabilize the domestic market in the interests of all participants, as well as to realize the record harvest of the current year," agriculture minister Dmitry Patrushev said during a governmental meeting.

"The target for wheat for next year is 80-85 million mt,” he added. 

Russia plans to increase the area sown with spring barley, meanwhile, by 400,000 ha and that with legumes, especially peas, by at least 125,000 ha, in order to balance crop rotation stability.

Patrushev also said an increase in the soybean planted area was expected, without giving details, while the area planted with sunseeds is expected to reach at least 9.8 million ha, compared to 10 million ha sown in 2022.

The total sowing area is expected to increase by 50,000 ha to a total of 82 million ha, while the structure of the sowing areas will be only finalized and approved on December 20, according to the statement.

Harvest

Presently, Russia continues to harvest grains and oilseeds for the current season, as harvest work has been delayed by unfavorable weather, such as rain in some regions or snow and ice in others.

The corn harvest progress has progressed by around 7 percentage points through the past week to almost 77% of the plan completed on 2.2 million ha, with 13.2 million mt already in the bins.

The yield remains better than last year at almost 6 mt/ha.

The sunflower harvest has also advanced by another 6 percentage points with 83.5% of the plan completed, which amounts to 8.4 million ha and 15.1 million mt.

The soybean harvest meanwhile has been very slow, with only a little progress seen and field works completed on 94% of the plan – yielding 6.2 million mt from 3.2 million ha in the bins.

The rapeseed harvest now stands at 96% complete on 2.2 million ha, amounting to 4.7 million mt harvested, almost 58% up from last year’s result at the same time of the year.