About 90% of Russia’s winter crops are in a good or satisfactory condition, Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said on Friday, urging the government to provide farmers with everything they need for the spring sowing campaign and fieldwork.
The state of winter crops in Russia, the world’s largest wheat exporter, caused concern after reports late last year that at least 37% of winter crops were in a poor condition.
Russian grain crops were hit by extreme weather from early spring frosts to drought in 2024, resulting in a 14% fall in grain harvest and lower exports, compared with the previous year.
“Today, about 90% of winter grain crops are in good and satisfactory condition, so we expect that the spring fieldwork will be successful,” Mishustin told a government meeting.
He also emphasised the need for more farms to have insurance to protect against adverse weather conditions and pledged state support to assist farmers with insurance costs. Last year, only a fifth of all seeded areas were insured, he said.
IKAR consultancy sees the 2025 grain harvest at 129.5 million metric tons, above the 126 million tons gathered last year. The wheat harvest is seen by IKAR at 82.5 million tons in a baseline scenario.
(Reporting by Olga Popova, writing by Gleb Bryanski)
