Rice harvest in Russia this year can reach up to 1 million tons. This is a 15% increase compared to last year, when 923,000 tons were harvested.
First of all, the Krasnodar Territory, the main rice producer in Russia, should become a source of positive dynamics.
It is noted that this season the sown area under rice there will be about 100,000 hectares.
This is much more than in any other region of Russia.
For example, Astrakhan and Rostov regions will jointly sow about 25 thousand hectares this time, Dagestan — 30 thousand hectares, Crimea — up to 3 thousand hectares.
The total area under rice, if we take the territory of the whole country, is 194 thousand hectares. That is, the Kuban accounts for more than half.
At the same time, an accident at the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric power station on the territory of Ukraine may lead to the fact that the water in the Crimean Canal is not enough to ensure the full irrigation of rice fields.
Therefore, Crimean farmers have already prepared for the fact that crops in this region may die.
But on a national scale, this is more than offset by an increase in crops in the Kuban, since there is much more area there.
It is worth recalling that the relatively poor result of last year was due, first of all, to the fact that an accident occurred at the Fedorovsky hydroelectric complex.
As part of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, the Ministry of Agriculture of the Russian Federation agreed with RusHydro that restoration work will be carried out, but they will most likely be completed no earlier than 2025.
At present, agreements have also been reached on the volumes of water discharge from the Krasnodar reservoir, which should contribute to solving the problem.
Igor Lobach, Chairman of the Council of the National Rice Union, stressed that so far there have been no reports from rice growers that they have any significant problems.
That is, we can expect that this season will be successful. However, it is still too early to draw final conclusions about what exactly the rice harvest will be this year: it will be possible to more accurately predict this only closer to autumn.
Will the rice export ban be extended?
It was originally installed last summer. With a high probability, this ban can be extended until the end of this year.
It applies to all countries, except for countries that are members of the EAEU.
It is assumed that such a restrictive measure should keep enough rice in Russia for domestic consumption in order to help protect the country’s food security.
