Russian soybean production to increase 8.2%: USDA

Greater acreage and improved yields will see Russia produce 3.87 million mt of soybeans in the 2018/19 marketing year, according to the Moscow branch of the USDA, although greater demand will see imports flat.

The figures are up 8.2%, or 295,000 mt, on the previous year, with area increasing to 2.8 million hectares, up 7.5% year on year and a chunky 27% on the previous year.

Imports are expected to remain flat at 2.1 million mt. Paraguay, Brazil, Romania and Croatia were the main suppliers of beans to Russia.

Soybean exports are forecast up at 625,000 mt for 2017/18, reflecting a good pace of shipments to China, the USDA said, although these exports are limited by infrastructure.

"Expansion of soybean exports to China is constrained by infrastructure issues such as incompatible railway gauges, lack of road connections between the two countries and absence of grain sea terminals," the report said.

Russia is one of a number of countries seeking to ramp up soybean production, with Canada forecasting production to double over the next nine years.