Russian wheat harvest passes 31% complete, 37.4m mt gathered

Russian farmers have harvested 31% of the wheat planted area as of July 31, putting progress already 12 percentage points above the area completed by the same date a year earlier, official government data showed Tuesday.

As of the date, 37.4 million mt of wheat has already been harvested from 9.2 million ha, with the average yield holding stable at 4 mt/ha, some 7% below last year’s result at the same point.

The total area planted with wheat in Russia stands at 29.3 million ha, only slightly down versus last year, as winter wheat plantings decreased to 15.6 million ha, but spring planting was completed on 13.6 million ha, almost a 6% increase year-on-year.

The barley harvest advanced by 670,000 mt to leave 4.35 million mt currently harvested from 1.2 million ha, which is also 11% higher than the result for the same date in 2022.

The average yield dropped compared to last week by 5% to 3.6 mt/ha, which is also almost 12% down year-on-year.

Rapeseeds have been harvested on 279,800 ha, with 753,400 mt now in the bins and a volume that is almost in line with last year’s pace.

However, the yield improved marginally week-on-week to 2.6 mt/ha, which is also 2% up year-on-year.

Altogether, Russia has planted spring crops on 29.9 million ha, along with 17.6 million ha sown with winter crops.

Together, the total planted area covers 47.5 million ha, of which the harvest has been completed on only 11.4 million ha , accounting for 24%.

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