Russia's agriculture minister said Wednesday that he expects the country's grain harvest to reach 72-73 million metric tons with an export potential of 10-14 million metric tons.

Speaking before parliament, Nikolai Fyodorov said that 76% of all planted acreage had been harvested, yielding 63 million tons of grain.

With an additional 20 million tons of stored grain, he expects Russia will be able to meet domestic demand and have an additional 10-14 million tons of grain available for export.

Global grain markets have kept a close eye on the Russian harvest which suffered from widespread drought. In 2011, Russia harvested a record 94.2 million tons of grain. The year before the government instituted an export ban after a severe drought that resulted in a harvest of just 61 million tons, sending prices soaring worldwide.

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

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 19, 2012 05:01 ET (09:01 GMT)