Cold weather and storms in May set the Russian harvest back, but it remains on course to come in at the benchmark level of 100mn tonnes this year.

Early harvesting has begun in Russia, but it is running about a week late compared to progress made for last year’s record harvest. In 2016 Russia harvested a record 119mn tons of grain and in 2015 it was 103mn tons.

Currently Russia is on track to bring in about 100mn tonnes, predicts the Ministry of Agriculture of Russia. "The main crops in the country are within 100mn tons of grain,” Vedomosti reported citing the director of the Department of Plant Agriculture Petr Chekmarev.

"For us it is better to let the terms of harvesting drag, but we need a big crop, and if we see that the yield is for 50 (kilograms per hectare), then I think let it be, let there be rain... Better rain than not rain," Minister of Agriculture of Russia Aleksander Tkachev said. "The data shows that so far collected is 19mn tonnes compared to last year's 25mn tonnes that was taken in," he said.

Tkachev predicted in July that due to bad weather the grain harvest in 2017 will amount to 100-105mn tons. "That will be enough for us. We need 40mn for [animal] feeding purposes, about 20mn for food purposes, 10mn as seeds and for the seed fund, with the rest of 30-35mn tonnes for exports", said the minister. 

Last year Russia retook the lead as the world’s largest grain exporter for the first time since the Tsarist-era, sending 25mn tonnes overseas, according to the country's Export Centre. That was up 14% on the previous year.

According to the export support institution, Egypt was the largest importer of Russian wheat, with exports reaching about 5.7mn tonnes. Other buyers were Turkey, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Azerbaijan, Yemen, Sudan, Iran and Morocco.

Russia earned about $15bn from grain exports, putting the industry on a par with arms exports, but still trailing a long way behind oil and gas exports which are currently running at about $60bn. However, Tkachev said at St Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) last year that he expects the revenues from grain exports to continue to rise over coming years and predicted that Russia could eventually be earning up to $100bn a year from the consignments.