Donetsk, Aug 4 - DAN. Donetsk People’s Republic might export some 100,000 tons of wheat and barley after bringing in the harvest, DPR Agriculture Minister Artyom Kramarenko said at a visiting conference with the Republic’s leader Denis Pushilin.
“The harvest this season enables us to make plans for possible exports of wheat and flour later this year,” the head of state’s official website quoted Kramarenko as saying. “According to preliminary estimates, we might export some 58,000 tons of wheat and 42,000 tons of barley.”
“The calculations are based on projected demand and planned consumption in the Republic. We consume 232,000 tons of wheat and 38,000 tons of barley a year,” he said.
The minister also noted that the Republic planned to bring in approximately 291,000 tons of wheat and 87,000 tons of barley. As of now, 80 percent of crops have been harvested; farmers have thrashed more than 346,00 tons of cereal and leguminous crops.
“The situation is much better compared with the lean year of 2018. In terms of yield, it’s far better than 2019. As of this date a year ago, we had only gathered 248,000 tons of cereal crops compared with 346,000 tons this year. Farmers did well as they fertilised crops on time with the dosage far larger compared with previous years. Also, the good weather in May was of help. Now we need a rain for sunflower harvest,” Kramarenko added.
The conference was attended by DPR Tax and Revenue Minister Yevgeny Lavrenov, Emergencies Minister Alexey Kostrubitsky, Shakhtyorsk administration head Alexander Shatov, Dobnass Agrarian Academy rector Vitaly Veretennikov and agricultural producers.
Earlier reports on Tuesday said that farmers of two DPR districts and two towns had harvested early season cereal crops.*jk*pp