Russian wheat harvest half completed, winter sowing starts

The Russian wheat harvest has reached the half way point as 50% of the estimated areas were complete, while the first hectares have been planted with winter crops, data from the country's agriculture ministry showed on Tuesday.

Russian farmers have already finished the gathering of wheat on 14.8 million ha and harvested 59.7 million mt, while the average yield was slightly up week-on-week to 4.2 mt/ha, which is also still well below last year’s 4.42 mt/ha at the same stage of the season.

That comes along with local analysts’ estimates that have increased in recent weeks, with the current highest figure set by IKAR at 89.5 million mt, while the ministry’s idea is still stable at 78 million mt.

The barley harvest has also got closer to the midpoint of the campaign, with 45% of the fields already completed and 11.4 million mt already in the bins from 3.59 million ha.

The average yield has dropped again by 6% for the week to the current 3.18 mt/ha.

The harvest of rapeseeds was limited with currently only 20.9% complete, which accounts for 1.3 million mt, while the yield stayed stable at 2.9 mt/ha.

At the same time, Russian farmers also started the winter crop planting campaign, with a total of 69,700 ha sown, including 27,300 ha covered with rapeseeds, 4,900 ha with wheat, and the rest with rye.

The data does not include the area under Ukrainian territories that are currently occupied by Russian forces, apart from annexed Crimea.