State interventions drive up grain prices

The state purchasing interventions allowed for increasing internal grain prices by December 11 as compared to November 13, 2002 (the day these interventions were started): 3rd class wheat prices - by around 20 percent (19.7 percent by December 11), 4th class wheat prices - by 11.3 percent, rye prices - by 20 percent, according to the data submitted by analysts of the Institute for Agricultural Market Studies (IKAR). In the similar period of 2001 3rd class wheat prices rose 1.7 percent, 4th class wheat prices - 2.9 percent, while rye prices dropped 1.7 percent.

It was pointed out by the institute that in the first week of state interventions on the Russian grain market (November 13-20) 3rd class wheat prices had advanced 21.5 percent, while prices for 4th class wheat and rye had increased 2.9 percent and 7.6 percent respectively. On December 11, 2002 the average Russian price for 3rd class wheat was RUR2,311 (around $72.55) per ton, for 4th class wheat- RUR1,622 (around $50.92) per ton and for rye -RUR1,060(around $33.28) per ton.