On May 29, 2020, the Russian Federation Forum "Russian Grains: New Reality" was held in an online format, an industry business platform where participants had the opportunity to hear answers to urgent questions directly from experts . The Forum was organized by the Federal Agribusiness Magazine.

The conference was attended by 1680 people! Farmers from 68 constituent entities of the Russian Federation, as well as Finland, the Netherlands, the United States, Austria, France, Ukraine, Germany, Turkey, Australia, the United Kingdom and other countries participated.

The welcoming speech of the forum organizers was taken by Valery Kochergin, editor of the magazine. According to him, the format of the event is due to the need to quickly inform farmers and provide relevant information. The next Russian Grains forum will be held offline in February 2021.

During the first session, they talked about the grain market, under the conditions of a new changed reality

Andrei Morunkov, director of crop production at PenzaMolInvest LLC (part of the Damate Group of Companies), spoke about the status of crops in Damate fields in the Penza Region. Despite prolonged rains in the Volga region at the height of the planting season, the company's farmers are working almost on time, finding the best "weather windows" for planting. The total amount of work planned is almost finished, the first outbreaks appeared. Andrey Morunkov gave an optimistic forecast: This year they expect winter and spring wheat yields of up to 4 tons per hectare.

Sergei Goncharov, professor at Voronezh State Agrarian University, named after Emperor Peter I, made a presentation on the topic "What are the types of winter wheat crops?" He shared how abnormally warm winters, spring rains, and temperatures influenced the growth and development of winter wheat in federal districts (good wintering, threats of disease spread, pests, reduced effectiveness of plant protection , etc.). Predictions have been made about the yield of winter wheat: in the Central Black Sea and the Volga region, the average indicator excess by 5-10%, in the Southern Federal District, a decrease of 10-20%.

Vitaly Shamaev, CEO of Agrospeaker, made a presentation "Russian Agricultural Sector: Grain and Money - 2020/21". He spoke about the impact of the coronavirus on world grain markets, noting that since the end of March, the correction of world grain prices has continued with the strengthening of the ruble. The decrease in business activity in the world (according to the PMI index), administrative barriers and the strengthening of the ruble are the main risks in the trade of new crops. The parameters of the new season were also analyzed in the USDA report for individual countries and crops, their impact on food prices and food grains. AGROSPICKER's agricultural market benchmarks showed the prospect of world prices in the new season for wheat, corn, soybeans and rapeseed.

In the 2020/21 season, Olga Grab, analyst for agricultural markets in the Black Sea region, Refinitiv, also spoke about the Russian grain market. She noted a high level of uncertainty in the market and summarized the results of the 2020/21 season. Based on weather conditions and other factors, she expressed the prospects for the new grain season.

The second session of the forum was dedicated to the sale of grains

Daria Snitko, director of the Gazprombank economic forecast center, dedicated her report to the review of world grain markets. She spoke about what is happening in the Russian grain consuming countries, which affects economic trends in the markets of these countries (Turkey, Egypt and others). In her opinion, the situation of the Russian exporters will improve slightly, even due to the "reduction" of some of the main competitors.

"The grain market in Russia: problems and prospects" - the subject of the report is Mikhail Khanov, director of the Novorossiysk branch of the Center for Evaluation of Grain Quality of the Federal State Budgetary Institution. She gave a forecast of cultivated areas in the Russian Federation for 2020, summarized the results of the spring fieldwork from May 22, and expressed an optimistic forecast for grain production in Russia in the 2020/21 season. In addition, she referred to the forecasts of exports of grains and processed products by selected crops and countries.