The Agriculture Ministry lowered its forecast for grain exports this agricultural year, July 2012 to June 2013, from a predicted 15.5 million to 14.8 million tons, Interfax reported.
"In this agricultural year, exports will amount to 14.8 million tons," Deputy Agriculture Minister Ilya Shestakov said at an economic conference Thursday.
Grain exports amounted to 13.5 million tons from July 1 to Jan. 30, Shestakov said. Russia has exported 403,000 tons of grain this month, 64 percent less than in December and 33 percent less than in November.
Meanwhile, Agriculture Minister Nikolai Fyodorov said the 5 percent duty on grain imports might be abolished, but he added that this was unlikely to have a major impact on the market.
(MT)
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