MOSCOW, October 17. /TASS/. Grain and pulse crop inventories with Russian agricultural companies (net of small businesses) surged by 42.5% year-on-year in September 2022 to 45.91 mln metric tons, the Federal State Statistics Service (Rosstat) said on Monday.

Wheat inventories soared by 53.9% annually to 32.96 mln metric tons. At the same time, grain maize stocks fell by 29.8% to 1.16 mln metric tons.

Grain sales in January - September 2022 contracted by 3.4% year-on-year to 40.26 mln metric tons. Wheat sales edged down by 2.9% to 27.2 mln metric tons. Corn sales gained 7.2% to 4.1 mln metric tons in the reporting period.

Grain sales in September of this year lost 3.9% to 8.9 mln metric tons. Wheat and corn sales fell by 2.6% to 6.51 mln metric tons and by 38.6% to 0.23 mln metric tons respectively.