ST. PETERSBURG, August 29 (RIA Novosti - North-West, Maxim Nichiporenko) - Russia will harvest 76-78 million metric tons of grain in 2005, Agriculture Minister Alexei Gordeyev said Monday.
According to Gordeyev, who was attending the opening of the ninth international agricultural fair, Agrorus-2005, in St. Petersburg, this forecast was made earlier and remained unchanged.
The minister said that Russian farms had threshed 57% of agricultural land or 60 million metric tons of grain.
Gordeyev added that Russia would export 8-10 million metric tons of grain by July 1, 2006. The grain export forecast for last year proved to be accurate, he added.
"We exported about 9 million metric tons of the grain produced last year," Gordeyev said.
