MOSCOW, September 13 (Itar-Tass) —— The grain yield in Russia has reached 74.1 million tons already – two percent up against the figures of 2009, which is considered the best year for grain production, First Deputy Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov said at a tele-conference on the harvesting campaign.
“The pace of grain harvesting confirms our initial forecasts, which said that in the current agricultural year the grain yield would amount to some 90 million tons,” he said.
Zubkov stressed that this amount of grain, including the grain reserves left from the past year, would allow to fully meet the domestic demand in grain and to increase perceptibly the grain exports.
He expressed satisfaction with the yield of vegetables, including potatoes, whose yield is greater by 10 percent than the 2009 figure (the figure for other vegetables is 36 percent) and by 83 percent than the figure of the difficult 2010 (the figure for other vegetables is 17 percent).
“The potato yield is good. This is why the price of potatoes is rather low – from 9 to 17 roubles. The corn yield is five million tons. The yield of rice, soya and sugar beet is also close to the record figures,” Zubkov said.
“The grain and vegetable yield permits us to state with confidence that we have overcome the consequences of the 2010 drought,” he stressed in conclusion.