KYRGYZ REPUBLIC (9 February)
Latest reports indicate that winter cereals have been planted on 355 000 hectares, similar to last year. Winter crops are reportedly in satisfactory conditions and aggregate cereal harvest is set to match the good harvest of last year, estimated at over 1.7 million tonnes. Last year’s aggregate harvest included some 1.2 million tonnes of wheat, 170 000 tonnes of barley and 320 000 tonnes of maize. Aggregate cereal import requirement for the 2004/05 marketing year is estimated at 158 000 tonnes, including 140 000 tonnes of food quality wheat and some 10 000 tonnes of rice.