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Flood-caused damage to Far Eastern soybean harvest to exceed RUB 20 bln

Their average annual damage may reach 700 million roubles, Ustyuzhanin said
Photo ITAR-TASS
Photo ITAR-TASS

MOSCOW, August 26 (Itar-Tass) - The flood-caused losses of soybean harvest in the Far East is estimated at 20 billion roubles (USD 1 = RUB 32.96) at least, President of the Russian Soy Union Anatoly Ustyuzhanin told Itar-Tass on Monday.

According to the Union’s estimates, the minimum losses of farmers and farmsteads in the district’s biggest soybean producer, the Amur region, may exceed seven billion roubles: the floods have damaged 45,000 hectares of seedlings on a total area of 642,000 hectares. Besides, another 326,000 hectares of soybean got wet under the water. “We are going to lose half of our potential harvest,” Ustyuzhanin said.

He also believed that hundreds of small soybean processing plants could be affected as a result of the inundation and their processing mini-lines could come to a standstill. Their average annual damage may reach 700 million roubles, Ustyuzhanin said.

“Fodder mills, food and processing enterprises, livestock farmers and poultry keepers will receive insufficient amounts of soybean products,” the Soy Union president said. He put the damage to soybean processing facilities and animal breeders at 12-13 billion roubles.

Soybean fields cover about 860,000 hectares in Russia’s Far East. All in all, this year’s gross soybean harvest is predicted to fall by 20-25 percent (or 250,000-300,000 tonnes), Ustyuzhanin added.