U.S. Dept of Agriculture increases Russian wheat export forecast for current season to 51 mln tonnes, harvest forecast to 91 mln tonnes

MOSCOW. Jan 15 (Interfax) - The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) in its January review increased its forecasts for Russian wheat exports and harvest for the current agricultural year from July 2023 - June 2024) by 1 million tonnes.

The new estimate for wheat exports is 51 million tonnes. The forecast for wheat exports by its closest competitor, the EU, was reduced 1 million tonnes to 36.5 million tonnes.

The updated forecast for the Russian wheat harvest is 91 million tonnes.

Meanwhile, the estimate for Russian feed grain production was lowered to 42.94 million tonnes from 43.2 million tonnes, which was forecast in December. The export forecast increased slightly to 11.36 million tonnes from 11.31 million tonnes the month before.

The USDA corn export forecast remains unchanged for the second month in a row at 5.3 million tonnes. The corn harvest estimate remained at the December level of 17 million tonnes.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture does include Crimea or other new territories in its forecasts.

The global wheat harvest this agricultural year is estimated at 784.01 million tonnes (versus 783.01 million tonnes in the December forecast), feed grain is forecast at 1.514 billion tonnes (vs. 1.502 billion tonnes forecast in December), and corn is forecast at 1.236 billion tonnes (versus a December forecast of 1.222 billion tonnes).