Black Earth Farming Ltd., which controls an area of Russian farmland four times the size of New York City, plans to start exporting grain and begin forward sales with traders and fertilizer suppliers.The St. Helier, Jersey-based company may compete in tenders abroad, Chief Financial Officer Michael Shneyderman said in an interview yesterday at a UBS AG conference in Moscow. Production will expand by about 9 percent to more than 500,000 metric tons this year, Shneyderman said.
“We became a major producer,” he said. “It’s not possible anymore to sell it effectively in the local markets.”
Russia, seeking to diversify the economy away from energy and mining, wants to increase annual grain exports to as much as 50 million tons in the next 10 to 15 years from 23 million tons last year. President Dmitry Medvedev this month ordered a review of plans for additional grain terminals to bolster port capacity from 25 million tons, cheaper loans to renovate or build silos and legislation to spur development of fallow land....MORE
We linked to prior posts in "Green Acres is the Place to Be: "The UK farmland grab"'
