OREANDA-NEWS Russia's grain harvest will increase by about 5 million tons a year due to the accession of former Ukrainian territories, Agriculture Minister Dmitry Patrushev told reporters last week.

“You know, there is really a lot of arable land there. It is important to organize a normal production process. Taking into account all that arable land, I think we will be able to harvest about 5 million tons of grain. I also think that we will introduce other crops,” Patrushev was cited as saying.

He noted that authorities have successfully established logistics chains to and from the newly joined Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics and Kherson and Zaporozhye Regions, and certain products from the area are already supplied to Russia, including vegetables. Meanwhile, some of the products that are grown for processing are supplied to these territories.

“The agro-industrial complex is strongly developed there; I think it will continue to develop… We are going to improve the ways of interaction with the new subjects,” the minister noted.

According to data from Russia’s statistics agency Rosstat, the grain harvest in 2021 amounted to roughly 121 million tons. This year’s grain production is expected to reach a record 150 million tons, President Vladimir Putin said last week, citing preliminary data on crops.

Russia has become the world’s biggest exporter of grain in recent years. The country has already delivered about 8.3 million tons of grain to foreign markets in 2022, and expects to supply around 50 million tons in total.