9 July 2026
The 2026 harvest is turning into a nightmare for Russian farmers, who are facing diesel fuel shortages, restrictions on sales, and rising prices.
The shortage of diesel fuel for combines and other equipment is particularly acute in key southern regions—the Rostov Region, Krasnodar Krai, and Stavropol Krai—which account for a fifth of the total grain harvest, Forbes reports, citing market participants.
In Kuban, diesel fuel is available on the M4 federal highway, and farmers are forced to spend the night at gas stations waiting for fuel trucks, a farmer working in the region told the publication. Gas stations have established limits of 100 or 200 liters per user, while a single combine harvester consumes up to 300 liters of fuel per shift. “Many don’t risk going to the harvest without the assurance of fuel delivery to the fields,” the source told Forbes.
In Crimea, the epicenter of the fuel disaster, equipment is “simply sitting idle,” according to a representative of the organization working on the peninsula. In the Rostov region, which harvests approximately 10 million tons of grain annually, farmers are already reporting potential losses of up to 15% of their harvest, according to Vladimir Poklad, director of the management consulting practice at the Delovoy Profil group.
Due to the strikes on oil refineries, which have affected all of the top 10 largest refineries over the past two months, diesel fuel production in Russia has plummeted by nearly 40%, and refining utilization has fallen to its lowest levels since the early 2000s. In the Sverdlovsk region, the situation is critical, a regional agricultural enterprise employee told Forbes. “We have fuel reserves for a month, but what will happen after that—nobody knows. So far, officials are just compiling endless tables with graphs of fuel needs and capacities, and that’s it,” he laments. “Everyone understands that if the harvest isn’t harvested, it will be a disaster. But no one understands how to help.”
In Yakutia, restrictions are in place—up to 200 liters of diesel fuel per person. But the republic’s vast territory prevents producers from driving tractors and other equipment 200-300 km to collect fuel, which is barely enough for a day’s work, complains Maya Gulyaeva, executive director of the People’s Farmer Sakha Association.
For small and medium-sized farms without their own fuel reserves, the situation is even worse. “Diesel reserves only cover 14 days of fieldwork, forcing them to purchase fuel on the spot market at inflated prices,” says Poklad.
The fuel shortage is exacerbated by the fact that the harvest must be completed within literally a week to 10 days of grain ripening, notes Andrei Sizov, director of the Sovecon analytical center. If the harvest is delayed, the grain will begin to crumble, and if it rains, harvesters simply won’t be able to reach the fields.
The 2026 harvest is already significantly behind last year’s: as of July 1, 1.3-1.5 million hectares had been threshed, which is three times less than the same period last year (4.2-4.6 million hectares). However, this was primarily due to weather factors, and this issue could be mitigated by the end of the harvest, according to Sizov.
By the end of the year, SovEcon forecasts the wheat harvest at 88.9 million tons—2.5% lower than last year.
It’ll be amusing to see a famine in mafia land. Let’s hope it comes to pass.
Great news. The rats might start eating each other when the shelves are empty.
A little Holodomor payback…yes!!!!