Bloomberg writes about these problems of Russian agrarians. The publication notes that according to the estimates of the Russian Ministry of Agriculture, by May 10, only 1.3 million hectares of spring wheat had been sown in the south of the country – half as much as a year earlier. Spring wheat accounts for a third of all wheat production in Russia.
As a result, according to preliminary estimates of experts, the total area under spring wheat in the 2026/27 season will decrease by 5% to 10.5 million hectares (the minimum for 20 years). Agrarians are massively switching to more profitable oilseed crops.
In April, the Russian Hydrometeorological Center recorded temperatures 3-7 °C below the norm in the European part of the country. The cold weather not only disrupted the sowing dates, but also slowed down the development of the root system of plants, depriving them of access to deep moisture.
In addition, May rains in the South, Urals and Volga regions threaten not only spring wheat, but also winter wheat, which will be harvested in June.
So far, the SovEcon analytical center forecasts the total wheat harvest in Russia at 89.7 million tons (slightly higher than last year), but the center has already lowered its export estimate by 4.6% to 85.2 million tons.
