Russia/Kazakh Latest

The ongoing drought in Russia is reported to have "killed 52.3 percent of grain seedlings in the Ulyanovsk region," according to a news report by news agency TASS.

The harvest has started early as farmers in the region attempt to salvage what little they can. The average grain yield in the region this year will be "below 1,170 kilograms per hectare, which is almost two times smaller than the target," the report adds.

The last time Russia has hit by drought was 2006/07 and they only produced 45 MMT of wheat that year, blocking exports entirely.

Yes, I know that they are supposed to have 24 MMT of reserves this time round, but have they really? And what condition are they in, they've been there a year already? And half of that is intervention stocks bought at even higher levels than where we are now.

Informa Economics meanwhile slashed their wheat production estimate for Kazakhstan to just 11 MMT, that's the lowest that I've seen yet.

I've updated the map I posted a week or two ago with the latest rainfall totals for the entire region for the first ten days of July, along with where the main wheat growing areas are: