Russia’s Agriculture Ministry plans to sell up to 1.5 million tonnes of wheat from the state grain reserve in the 2018/19 marketing season, which started on July 1. The draft proposal came in days after the Agriculture Ministry suspended plans for tenders to sell up to 500,000 tonnes of grain from its 4 million tonne grain stockpile to free up storage space and to reduce budget spending on servicing the stock. Between June 20 and July 4, it was offering the grain in small batches in the hope that buyers would then export it. It sold 122,539 tonnes of grain during the period.