MOSCOW, RUSSIA — Russia’s wheat exports have been revised downward in the 2019-20 season due to partial droughts, Reuters reported.
Forecasting agencies IKAR and SovEkon both revised their estimates for the crop downward, which means Russia may lose its title as world’s largest grain exporter to Ukraine.
IKAR lowered its wheat export outlook by 500,000 tonnes to 36.5 million tonnes and total grain exports by 1.4 million tonnes to 46 million tonnes. SovEkon revised wheat and total grain export outlooks down by 600,000 and 500,000 tonnes to 37.6 million and 48.9 million tonnes, respectively.
Still, total wheat exports are still expected to surpass the 34.2 million tonnes exported in 2018. Total wheat harvest for 2019 is estimated at 80 million tonnes by IKAR and 82.2 million tonnes by SovEkon, compared to 72 million tonnes in 2018.
However, Ukraine could surpass Russia in exports as it’s on track to export 49 million tonnes of grain this season.