Russia's economy ministry has proposed suspending import duties on grain until Aug. 1 in an effort to help bolster the supply used in grain intervention sales that have tried to stabilize domestic prices.

The government said in a statement on its website that First Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich--who oversees agricultural issues--had commissioned a study "in the near future" on how best to implement such a move and coordinate decision-making.

The agriculture ministry has sold more than 1.5 million tons of intervention grain worth about 13 billion rubles ($434 million) dating back to late October, after widespread drought caused domestic prices to shoot up.

The ministry said Jan. 24 that it was planning to sell nearly 3 million metric tons of grain at intervention tenders between now and the end of the current marketing year June 30.

The ministry said at this time the grain intervention reserve held 3.33 million tons of grain.

Write to Lukas I. Alpert at lukas.alpert@dowjones.com

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(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 01, 2013 10:29 ET (15:29 GMT)