Russia to lose up to 22 mln t of grain due to bad weather in 2024, but harvest forecast of 130 mln t stands - minister

MOSCOW. Nov 5 (Interfax) - Russia will lose about 20 million-22 million tonnes of grain due to natural disasters in 2024, but the official harvest forecast of about 130 million tonnes will not be revised before the end of the year, Agriculture Minister Oksana Luth said.

"Farmers faced unprecedentedly difficult weather conditions this year. In the spring, a number of regions suffered from recurrent frost, in the summer from drought and during the harvest from heavy precipitation. All this led to a significant decrease in yield. According to estimates, the shortfall of grain due to natural disasters will amount to about 20 million-22 million tonnes," Luth said in an interview with Vedomosti.

However, this year again demonstrated the sector's ability to adapt and manage all difficulties, she said. Losses were minimized and a critical drop in production was prevented.

"For example, plantings that perished due to May frost were quickly replanted on an area of about 900,000 hectares, which made it possible not to lose the harvest from them. In the end, despite all difficulties, the results this year will be more than respectable. The harvest will be among the five best in the country's history," Luth said.

Recalling that the official grain harvest forecast is about 130 million tonnes, she said "this figure will not be revised anymore before the end of the year."

"In the country as a whole, grain was planted with a view to harvesting 150 million tonnes, and if not for climatic anomalies, we would have certainly harvested more than we're now forecasting. In terms of technology in agriculture, everything is good, but this year the weather brought its own adjustments," Luth said.

Furthermore, the imposition of the state of a counterterrorism operation in Kursk, Belgorod and Bryansk regions also affected the harvest and forecast, she said. Farmers in Kursk Region, for example, cannot access 150,000 hectares of land to harvest grain. Kursk, Belgorod and Bryansk regions are expected to lose 1.2 million-1.5 million tonnes of the harvest, Luth said.

She also said insurance payments with state support to farmers who lost part of their harvest due to bad weather have totalled 2.6 billion rubles and "this amount might grow to 5.5 billion rubles" once the harvest is gathered.

"In addition, 930 million rubles was allocated from the government's reserve fund to support orchard farms that suffered from frost. In general, protection from force majeures of a natural nature for farmers should be insurance, and this is the area of responsibility and risk of agribusinesses themselves," Luth said.

Estimating the damage to livestock farmers in Kursk Region, she said livestock losses exceed 3 billion rubles. Pig and dairy farms were primarily hurt, with about 322,600 pigs and about 25,700 head of cattle having perished, Luth said.

The pig deaths will affect Russia's overall pork production. "We expected the figure to grow 4% this year, but due to the difficult situation in Kursk Region we will essentially remain at last year's level of 6 million tonnes," Luth said.

Time will be needed to restore animal populations, so the Agriculture Ministry is talking to the Finance Ministry about bringing back subsidized lending for pork producers, which was scrapped a few years ago.

"We're thinking about bringing back subsidized lending for a certain amount of production in order to cover the needs of the domestic market and at the same time not create overproduction and knock down purchasing prices," Luth said.