FAR EAST TO IMPORT GRAIN DIRECTLY.

Contracts arranged and managed by local commercial organizations in the Far East will import between 300,000 and 400,000 tons of grain in early 1996, Deputy Economics Minister Ivan Starikov said last week. (4) Russia produced only 65 million tons of grain in 1995, compared with 81 million in 1994 and 117 million in 1990. The federal food reserve has purchased only one out of the estimated five to eight million tons needed to supply the country’s Far North, armed forces, and large industrial centers. Projected grain imports for 1996 are variously estimated by official bodies at 3.5 to 6 million tons.

U.S., Russian Companies Fail to Create Sakhalin Oil Consortium.