Medvedev orders monitoring of grain supplies

"Agrarians are afraid of remaining without grain at all, first of all without feed grain," said Medvedev as quoted by the Itar-Tass news agency.

"We must see to it that grain supplies are not stopped so that we know demands of each region in order to promptly meet it," said Medvedev.

The government has taken measures to support agricultural producers via subsidizing the extended loans, said Zubkov.

"It means that loans to the total sum of about 127 billion rubles (some 4 billion U.S. dollars) will be extended, and five to six billion will be yearly allocated," said Zubkov.

Zubkov meanwhile denied any lack of grain on the Russian market, adding that an intervention stock of over 9 million tons, including 3 million tons of feed grain, was most likely to be initiated "next spring when the market situation is absolutely clear." Kazinform cites Xinhua. See www.xinhuanet.com for full version.