Russia boosting grain exports to Africa, Middle East countries - Agriculture Minister

MOSCOW. Sept 28 (Interfax) - Russia is increasing grain exports to countries in Africa and the Middle East, Agriculture Minister Dmitry Patrushev said at a meeting on the progress of seasonal fieldwork chaired by President Vladimir Putin.

"Despite some decrease in the pace of foreign trade owing to sanctions pressure, we are increasing grain supplies to the countries of the Middle East and Africa," Patrushev said.

The harvest is proceeding as planned, faster and with higher yields than last year, he said. About 140 million tonnes of grain have already been threshed and about 90% of the crop area has been cleared.

"According to forecasts, in 2022, as we said, the grain harvest in clean weight will near 150 million tonnes, of which about 100 million tonnes will be wheat. We are expecting an all-time record here. Such production figures, of course, will enable us to supply the domestic market, as well as export fairly impressive amounts," Patrushev said.

Yields are also higher for a number of other crops, he said. Farmers have harvested 12 million tonnes of sugar beet and are expected harvest over 43 million tonnes. The soybean harvest is underway, with 850,000 tonnes cleared. "We expect a record amount of 5.4 million tonnes," Patrushev said.

Farmers have also harvested 2.2 million tonnes of sunflower and 3.5 million tonnes of potatoes from half the crop area, and the final figures are expected to be 15 million tonnes and about 7 million tonnes, respectively, he said.

"Field vegetables have been harvested from half the area; the pace is comparable to 2021. Overall, together with greenhouse vegetables, we expect a harvest of 6.8 million tonnes. And, finally, the pace of the fruit and berry harvest is faster than last year. As of the current date, 554,000 tonnes have been harvested and we plan to reach a record 1.5 million tonnes.