Russia will not need to import grain in 1994 because it has enough in stock to last until the next harvest and higher prices have cut consumption, government officials said Thursday.


Officials said such a policy was possible even though the federal weather and environmental monitoring service has forecast this year's harvest at 89 million tons, compared to a harvest of 99 million tons in 1993 when Russia imported 11 million tons from abroad.


Mikhail Prastov, head of the supplies department of Russia's state grain purchaser Roskhleboprodukt, said Thursday that domestic consumption has fallen significantly over the past year because grain has become too expensive.


"The times when we used bread to feed our cattle are gone," said Prastov. "We just do not waste as much grain as we used to."


President Boris Yeltsin announced Wednesday that Russia will not purchase grain abroad this year for the first time in three decades, saying that the country has enough reserves to meet demand until the next harvest comes in.


Alexander Orfyonov, an official at the president's press service, said Thursday that Alexander Zaveryukha, deputy prime minister in charge of agriculture, has recently suggested to the president that Russia will not need to import grain this year.


"President Yeltsin has reviewed the issue and agreed with the proposal," Orfyonov said, adding that Yeltsin's statement did not apply to private grain imports.


According to the State Statistics Committee, total domestic grain consumption for the year ending June 30, 1994 will be 113.9 million tons, compared to 120.3 for the year ending June 30, 1993.


But Arkady Zlochevsky, chief executive of OGO, the country's largest grain trading company, said Thursday that Russia might still import some grain through semi-private export-import companies.


"The statement does not necessarily mean exports will completely stop," he said. "The government might tell somebody else to import, Roskhleboprodukt and Exportkhleb, for instance."


Zlochevsky also said that the lack of the money to pay for imports could be the real reason behind the cut in imports. Last year Russia imported 11 million tons, less than half of 1992 imports of about 26 million tons when the harvest was 106.8 million tons.


"Most of last year's imports were financed by foreign credits, but this year Russia might just have no money to pay for grain," Zlochevsky said.


Zaveryukha said in January that while grain imports would be cut to the bare minimum in 1994, Russia may still buy 1 to 2 million tons of wheat for its Far Eastern regions. He said that the government had already purchased 100,000 tons of wheat for the Far East this year.


Stephen Kuellmar, an economist with the European Commission's agricultural research group in Moscow, welcomed the decision to stop imports, saying that Russia should invest in its own agriculture rather than buying grain abroad.


"If the government has money for imports, which require advanced payments, why does it not give the same money to Russian farmers to stimulate domestic production?" Kuellmar said.


Zlochevsky said that although the cut in Russian government demand could cause world grain prices to fall, private grain imports would inevitably grow to meet market needs.


"Private importers are much more flexible and fast and they would have eventually taken over the centralized imports anyway," he said.


The federal weather service said that 13 to 16 percent of land under winter crops was in bad condition and would have to be resown because of the tough winter season.


Rising domestic grain prices and high transport costs have made it cheaper for Russia's Far Eastern regions to import grain than to buy it from the main growing areas in central Russia.


In February, an average railway tariff was 8.25 rubles per ton per kilometer, as compared to 3.75 rubles in November, according to the OGO monthly report. A 1,000-kilometer delivery adds another 10 percent to the price of wheat.