Source: APKinform (Ukraine)
In the first ten-day period of February, 573 thousand tons of wheat was exported from Russia, which is 2.2 times less than in the same period last year (1.263 million), Interfax reports with reference to the monitoring data of the Russian Grain Union.
As the director of the analytical department of the Russian Grain Union Elena Tyurina specified, as a whole export of Russian grain in the specified period made up 665 thousand tons against 1.615 million tons a year earlier (reduction in 2.4 times). In particular, barley shipments decreased by 37.3%, to 60.9 thousand tons against 97.1 thousand tons, corn – decreased to 32.1 thousand tons from 254.3 thousand tons.
In the first ten days of February, the number of countries where Russian wheat was shipped decreased significantly – from 23 to 7. The largest buyer was Egypt, where 270 thousand tons were shipped, which is 6.3% more than a year ago (255 thousand tons). The second place is occupied by Bangladesh: exports to this country increased by 10.8% to 59 thousand tons from 53.3 thousand tons. The top 3 is Tanzania, which reduced purchases by 39%, to 55 thousand tons from 90 thousand tons a year earlier.
According to E. Tyurina, the reduction in shipments can be explained by statements of major wheat importers that they will reduce purchases on the world market this season due to an increase in their own production. In particular, Indonesia has increased production by 2.3 million tons, and in this country the rice harvest is increasing and wheat purchases will be replaced by the use of rice flour.
Also, the analyst reported that Russian barley in the first decade of February purchased only two countries – Libya (56 thousand tons) and Iran (4.4 thousand tons against 21 thousand tons a year ago). Corn was shipped only to Iran, and shipments decreased to 31.2 thousand tons from 125.8 thousand tons a year ago.