Agriculture Ministry's forecast for 2025 grain harvest at 145 mln tonnes - Russian Agricultural Bank

MOSCOW. March 13 (Interfax) - The Agriculture Ministry is forecasting the grain harvest in 2025 at 145 million tonnes, the deputy head of the Center for Industry Expertise at Russian Agricultural Bank, Oleg Knyazkov, said at the Russian Crop Production. Spring-2025 conference on Thursday.

"You know that the Agriculture Ministry has a forecast of 145 million tonnes, based on the approved crop rotation structure, which has already been communicated to everyone," he said.

The Russian Agriculture Ministry itself has not yet officially declared the forecast.

Knyazkov said that the Russian Agricultural Bank's minimum harvest forecast for grain and legumes is 139 million tonnes this year, with a maximum forecast of 145 million tonnes.

The harvest will increase this year thanks to improved climatic conditions and to 600,000 ha of additional cultivated area, Knyazkov said.

"We can be sure that harvests will not decrease and weather conditions will improve," he said.

According to the Federal State Statistics Service, Russia harvested 125.9 million tonnes of grain in 2024 against 144 million tonnes in 2023, including 82.6 million tonnes of wheat versus 92.8 million tonnes in 2023.