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Non-Tech : Farming -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: LoneClone who wrote (2603)	9/6/2010 11:19:11 AM
From: LoneClone	Respond to of 4441

Russia Says World Shouldn't Panic About Grains Supply By Maria Kolesnikova - Sep 6, 2010 4:12 AM PT bloomberg.com Global grain supplies are adequate to meet demand and any “panic” isn’t warranted, Russian Deputy Agriculture Minister Alexander Petrikov said. Russia, the world’s third-biggest grower, banned exports Aug. 15 after the worst drought in half a century. The country last season shipped 18.5 million metric tons of wheat overseas, or 14 percent of global exports, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin last week extended the grains and flour export ban to next year. “There shouldn’t be any panic,” Petrikov said in an interview in Moscow today. “The global market has enough reserves,” Petrikov said. Milling wheat for November delivery jumped 0.8 percent to 233.75 euros ($359) a metric ton on NYSE Liffe in Paris. Prices have climbed 78 percent this year. Wheat prices in Chicago, a global benchmark, have soared 74 percent from a three-year low on June 9 as drought in Russia, flooding in Canada and parched fields in Kazakhstan and the European Union ruined crops. Prices for feed-quality wheat and barley and rye are rising in Russia and the prospects of higher food prices have sparked riots in Mozambique. Global world inventories will be 174.8 million metric tons after harvests in the year ending May 31, according to the USDA. The jump in wheat prices has not reached “global crisis status,” said Abdolreza Abbassian, senior grains economist at the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization. ‘More Plantings’ Higher prices should spur more plantings this winter, Abbassian said in an interview on “The Pulse” with Andrea Catherwood. United Grain Co., Russia’s state grain trader, should fund spring planting for Russian farmers and sign contracts to buy grain from them next year, the National Grain Producers’ Union said. This measure doesn’t imply paying interest rates and may be the only source of funding that farmers can afford, Pavel Skurikhin, the Union’s president, said in a statement. This may help restore Russia’s grain export potential, he said. “Russia will come back to the global market,” Petrikov said. “Russian grain will be competitive and of good quality, and there will be demand for it.” The extension of the export ban was intended to “calm” markets, he said. In Russia, prices for feed-quality wheat and barley, as well as rye, rose last week from a week earlier, SovEcon research center said today. Russians have hoarded staples, which has contributed to price gouging, Agriculture Minister Yelena Skrynnik said last week. No Grounds President Dmitry Medvedev said Russia won’t have food shortages and there are no grounds for rising food prices. He ordered law enforcement agencies and the state competition watchdog to monitor prices. Russia slashed the grain-crop forecast to between 60 million and 65 million tons from the original estimate of 97 million tons because of the drought. Consumer prices rose 5.4 percent in the year through Aug. 30, according to the Federal State Statistics Service. In the week, the price of eggs jumped 8.3 percent, sugar climbed 2.1 percent and flour advanced 1.6 percent, the service said. Russian wholesale prices for potatoes jumped 150 percent compared with last year after the national crop halved because of the drought, Vedomosti reported today. Millers raised wholesale prices for flour by 20 percent to 40 percent after they ran out of cheaper grain, the Federal Anti-Monopoly Service said Aug.25. To contact the reporter on this story: Maria Kolesnikova in Moscow at mkolesnikova@bloomberg.net