Russia harvests over 145 mln tonnes of grain in bunker weight, loss allowance could be significant due to weather - Deputy PM Patrushev

MOSCOW. Dec 2 (Interfax) - Russian farmers have harvested over 145 million tonnes of grain in bunker weight so far, and the forecast for a grain harvest of 135 million tonnes in net weight remains, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Patrushev said at a meeting dedicated to seasonal field work.

"The new harvest has almost been fully gathered. And what is important is that throughout the season, despite weather catastrophes, the yield for key crops was better than last year. This concerns grain and oilseed, sugar beet and potato. As a result, we are expecting very decent harvests. The volume of grain in bunker weight has already exceeded 145 million tonnes. Of course, there could be a fairly significant loss allowance owing to the weather [for processing, drying and cleaning]," Patrushev is quoted as saying by his press service.

He also said that "we can say for certain that the 2025 grain harvest will be one of the most significant in recent history".

Patrushev confirmed the forecast for the wheat harvest of 90 million tonnes, record soybean and rapeseed harvests are also expected, and the potato harvest is at the level of 8 million tonnes.

Around 20 million hectares of winter crops have been sown for next year's harvest, which corresponds to forecast figures, he said.

"At the same time, the fully formed structure of sown areas for the next year must be approved by the Agriculture Ministry by the end of December and sent to the regions. This is not only a guarantee of a balanced harvest but also one of the important stages of preparing the sector for the new sowing season," he said.

Patrushev drew the attention of the regions and the Agriculture Ministry to the fact that it is necessary to focus now on the systematic preparation of resources for the 2026 season.

In particular, he noted the need to ensure the purchase of mineral fertilizers and plant protection products in advance, without waiting for a significant increase in demand on the eve of the start of the sowing season, as well as the development of a plan by the Agriculture Ministry and the Energy Ministry for the supply of fuel for agricultural machinery for the new season.

At the same time, he said that the government maintains comprehensive support for the agricultural sector. "More than 600 billion rubles have been allocated for the implementation of industry state programs in 2025, of which over 100 billion rubles have been assigned to direct subsidies for farmers. A comparable amount of direct subsidies is planned for next year as well," he said.