Russian wheat exports between July 1 and November 15 reached 19.2 million mt, up 29% on the year, agriculture ministry data showed Monday.
The higher year-on-year pace reflects an earlier-than-usual harvest as a result of hot and dry weather, which prompted farmers to begin threshing much earlier than expected to minimize heat and drought damage to crops.
In addition, dry and hot weather resulted in lower wheat production.
As a result, some 73.4 million mt of wheat was harvested in bulk weight from 26.4 million hectares, or 99.2% of seeded area, as of November 16 according to the ministry of agriculture, down from 85 million mt in 2017-18 in net weight.
This situation subsequently pushed prices up and therefore prompted producers to accelerate sales. However, lower demand from end-users contributed to the a drop in the export pace and, consequently, to a drop in prices starting from the second half of October. Platts assessed 12.5% protein wheat prompt loading at $226/mt Friday, $1 lower than a week earlier.
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