Russia reaps record grain harvest in 2020

2020 was a very difficult year for the economy as a whole.

But, despite this, neither the coronavirus pandemic, nor the spring closure of enterprises associated with it, nor the sanctions of Western countries significantly affected the grain harvest.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture of the Russian Federation, about 125 million tons of grain were harvested this year. This is about 10 million tons more than the result of the previous year.

It turns out that 2020 in the grain harvest in Russia became the «silver medalist» for the entire time and was second only to 2017 (with a value of 135 million tons).

What prevented you from collecting more?

For all that, the harvest could have been even greater. But it was adversely influenced by a number of factors specific to the agrarian region:

  1. Locust plague.
  2. Drought and late frosts in the southern regions of the country.

Special mention should be made of late frosts.

For Rostov, Krasnodar, Stavropol regions, this is highly unusual.

However, in April 2020, there was a «return of cold weather».

And this is one of the main reasons why this year almost all southern regions are «in the minus»: the wheat harvest in the Stavropol Territory is one third less than last year, and in the Krasnodar Territory — almost a quarter.

However, the large size of the country played into the hands this time: the “failures” of the southern regions were compensated for thanks to the records of the central district and the Volga Federal District. In the Volga region this year, 23 million tons of grain were harvested, and this is an absolute record for it.

In general, the year turned out to be successful for farmers, also because the price of wheat also broke records (17 thousand rubles per ton).

And although the country’s government is going to introduce export quotas next year, as well as possibly a duty, at the moment this does not prevent agricultural producers from completing the year with a very good result.