On Tuesday, Izvestia reported that the government of Russia has instructed the Ministry of Agriculture to begin monitoring the level of the grain reserves of the nation month to month, according to relevant documents. The report noted the authorities could introduce a ban on exports if the stocks fell to critically low levels.

The report noted that critically low is defined by the government as a volume of 10 million tons of grain, which is enough to supply the country for about 1.5 months, given the country consumes about 80-85 million tons of grain annually.

According to Izvestia, the ministry said that given the large stocks of 2022, and the bumper crop of 2023, the nation’s current grain reserves are sufficient to ensure the food security of Russia.

In a meeting Tuesday, Dmitry Patrushev, the minister of agriculture, said that the 2023 grain harvest in Russia is forecast to be the second largest the country has ever seen.

He noted that, “Over 151 million tons of grain in bunker weight have been threshed, including almost 99 million tons of wheat,” and that socially important crops, such as rice and buckwheat have also seen a significant increase.

The minister said this would allow Russia to cover its domestic needs completely as well as supply record amounts of grain to its partner nations.

Russia temporarily banned exports of grain to the Eurasian Economic Union in March of 2022 to protect its own domestic food market as Ukraine-related sanctions increasingly threatened to weigh on the Russia economy.