(Updates with Siberia’s crop in fourth paragraph.)

Sept. 30 (Bloomberg) -- Russia’s grain exports will be 23 million metric tons this season, making it the second biggest wheat exporter after the U.S., Viktor Zubkov, the first deputy prime minister, said.

The exports reached 9.1 million tons so far this year with shipments to 66 countries, Zubkov said, according to a statement on the government’s website. Russia’s wheat exports will be 16 million tons for the season started July 1, making it the fourth largest shipper after the U.S., Australia and Canada, the International Grains Council estimated this month.

Russia will spend 1.3 billion rubles ($42 million) on rail discounts to boost grain exports from Siberia, signaling more shipments through the Black Sea, the main export hub. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin will consider domestic cereal needs before signing the discounts into law, according to an e-mailed statement from his press service.

Siberia’s grain crop is 12.5 million tons so far this year, with soybeans at 1 million tons, Zubkov said in the statement.

--With assistance from Rudy Ruitenberg in Paris. Editors: Claudia Carpenter, John Deane

To contact the reporter on this story: Marina Sysoyeva in Moscow msysoyeva@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Claudia Carpenter at ccarpenter2@bloomberg.net