November 26 2003, 11:24 Interfax

Russia will be harvesting 84-86 mln t grain by 2006 - AgMinistry

In 2004 Russia will harvest 78 to 80 million tonnes of grain, and by 2006 the gross crop will have been increased to 84 to 86 million tonnes - such data were contained in the updated economic forecast of the country's farming and processing industry, prepared by the Ministry of Agriculture, Interfax news agency has informed.

A spokesman for the ministry told the news agency that the forecast was based on the grain area of 50 million hectares, expected in the next year, against 42.6 million hectares in 2003.

As it has already been reported, in this year Russia is going to harvest 70 million tonnes of grain in clean weight.

According to the forecast, production of oilseed crops in 2006 will be increased to 5.3 million tonnes from 4.9 million tonnes in this year. It is expected that the yields of oilseed crops will be raised thanks to an increase in application of fertilisers and usage of resource-saving farm technologies. This will result in year-average production of vegetable oils in 2004-06 at the level 1.35-1.4 million tonnes.

The ministry is also expecting an increase in production of livestock commodities and in output of food processing industry enterprises.