Tatarstan farmers harvested more than 3.6m tonnes of grain

On 5 Septemebr, speaking at a briefing in the Government House of the republic, Tatarstan Minister of Agriculture and Food Marat Zyabbarov informed that farmers of the republic have harvested 3m 662 thousand tonnes of grain with the average yield of 25.8 centners per hectare.

“The harvest campaign is coming to an end with 25 thousand hectares left to be harvested,” he said.

Having named regions of the republic, which had a good yield of grain, he mentioned that about 30 thousand hectares in the east of Tatarstan suffered from spring frost and summer drought, which resulted in their very low yield capacity.

He said that last year grain procurement prices dropped because of last year’s high yield and there are still 600 thousand tonnes of last yield grain stored in the republic. He explained that every year grain prices decrease during the harvest and are expected to rise in October-November, having recommended farmers to sort out, clean and store the harvested grain.

Marat Zyabbarov also informed that last year the federal budget subsidized 1.3bn rubles for 990 thousand tonnes of procured grain and this year farmers will get 718m rubles of state support for 446 thousand tonnes of procured grain.

“We are selling grain surplus and this year Tatarstan exported nearly 12m dollars of it mostly to Iran, Turkey, Syria and Kazakhstan. The storage capacity of the republic is nearly 5m tonnes, including elevators and farmers’ warehouses,” the Minister said.

“To provide the population of the republic with sugar we need 100 thousand tonnes of granulated sugar and with the expected yield of more than 1.5m tonnes of sugar beet we do not see any reason for deficit,” Marat Zyabbarov informed.

He also told that agricultural fairs, where prices will be from 4 to 50 per cent lower that average retail ones depending on the product, will start their work on 9 September on 14 sites in Kazan, two – in Nabereshnyye Chelny and Zelenodolsk , three-  in Nizhnekamsk and in 14 municipalities.