According to Eduard Zernin, chairman of the board of the union, record shipments are due to the huge harvest. The five largest buyers of Russian wheat remain the same: Turkey, Egypt, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Algeria. But now Pakistan, as expected, has approached the top 5, having already purchased more than 1 million tons of Russian wheat. According to forecasts, the volume of deliveries in February will be approximately the same, since at the moment there are already orders for 3.3 million tons from deep-water ports alone. Plus, the dispatch of some ships will be postponed from January.
“The dynamics of shipments in early January, of course, was affected by favorable weather conditions, which did not allow exporters to ship the planned volume in December. In addition, some exporters have accelerated the pace of shipments in anticipation of the introduction of grain export quotas. We see this trend every year since the introduction of quotas,” Zernin said (quote from the Telegram channel of the Union of Grain Exporters).
According to the director of the analytical department of the Russian Grain Union ( RZS) Elena Tyurina, from January 1 to January 30, wheat exports amounted to 3.74 million tons, which is 2.2 times more than in the same period last year. She also said that shipments of corn, which had previously declined, began to grow in January: a total of 492 thousand tons were shipped, which is 58% more than a year earlier. “The export of barley has also grown - up to 124 thousand tons against 102 thousand tons last January,” she added (quoted by Interfax). According to the results of January, shipments of the main types of grains and leguminous crops will amount to 4.4 million tons, of which wheat - 3.8 million tons. This month, Russia exported it to 30 countries, and traditional importers significantly increased the volume of purchases: for example, Egypt had shipped 2.3 times more than in January last year - almost 870 thousand tons, deliveries to Turkey increased by 50% to 370 thousand tons
In total, from the beginning of the agricultural year to February 1, total grain exports are projected at almost 35 million tons, including 31 million tons of wheat, Tyurina said. For the period from February to July 1, 2023, the export potential will amount to 27.7 million tons of all major types of grain, including 21 million tons of wheat. “That is, the export quota, which will come into effect on February 15 in the amount of 25.5 million tons, was calculated quite adequately,” she said.