A leading Russian analyst has hit back at allegations that Russian wheat is dogged by high levels of insect damage, noting this year's strong harvest in Siberia where cold weather acts as a natural defence against bugs.

A perception of significant insect infestation was "too much ado about nothing", Andrei Sizov, managing director of Moscow-based SovEcon said in a letter to Agrimoney.com.

"International traders still tend to think that bug damage is a huge problem for Russia," Mr Sizov said in separate comments.

"That is just not the case. There is still a lot of wrong information around on this issue."

Cold cure 

While crop quality had been below average in 2008, when Russia's warmer southern districts enjoyed bumper harvests, this year's production had been led by Siberia "where there is no bug damage at all because of the cold weather".

Siberia includes the coldest inhabited place on earth, Oymyakon, which has reported temperatures as low as minus 71.2 degrees Celsius.

There was strong competition between Russian traders to snap up Siberian wheat, which could be bought for as little as $100 per tonne yet meet exacting standards of buyers such as Egypt and Jordan, Mr Sizov said.

His comments follow a Russian grain industry conference at Moscow's Grain Club last week.

'Correct' wheat 

His comments follow quality concerns which have lingered since a spat earlier this year over poor-quality Egyptian imports of Russian grain.

While trade talk has suggested that Egyptian importers were at fault, for allegedly attempting to pass off feed wheat as of milling quality, Russian grain has retained a stigma over quality.

Johny Boerjan, an executive at inspection group Societe Generale de Surveillance, said last month that it was a "very hard" task finding "correct" wheat from the Black Sea, a grain grouping which also includes Kazakhstan and Ukraine.

Global warming threat 

Mr Sizov acknowledged that the quality of Russian wheat faced a long-term decline thanks to global warming.

Besides providing better conditions for pests to spread, milder temperatures had encouraged farmers to switch from spring wheat to winter grain, which tends of offer higher yields but poorer quality.

"In the Volga valley, 10-15 years ago, the area of winter wheat was pretty small. Five years ago its share is was 20%. Now it's around 40%," he said.