By Polina Devitt
MOSCOW, Aug 7 (Reuters) – Moscow’s bans on various food imports from the United States, Canada, the European Union and Australia should have no impact on Russia’s grain exports, agriculture minister Nikolai Fyodorov said on Thursday.
The potential for grain shipments from the Black Sea region to be disrupted by the crisis in Ukraine helped lift wheat prices on the Chicago Board of Trade to a one-month high earlier this week, but valued fell back today.
“I don’t think the sanctions have fundamentally changed anything. Russia is still competitive on the (wheat) export market and production looks likely to have exceeded expectations,” said Macquarie analyst Christopher Gadd.
Read Also
Entomologist tests trap crops and marigolds to repel flea beetles at an Ag in Motion
An Agriculture Canada entomologist is experimenting with trap crops and marigolds at an Ag in Motion demonstration cropplot
Russia’s grain exports are expected to reach 25 million tonnes in 2014-15 marketing year, which started on July 1, Fyodorov told reported in Moscow on Thursday.
Exports in 2013-14 were 25.4 million tonnes with most grain shipped to the Middle East, Africa and Asian countries.
“These countries are friendly to us … That’s why everything is quite predictable for us on the grain market and grain exports,” Fyodorov said.
The largest buyers of Russian wheat in 2013-14 were Egypt, Turkey, Yemen and Iran. Turkey and South Korea were the most important markets for corn while Saudi Arabia took more than half its barley exports.
Russia imposed the food import bans after the European Union, the U.S. and Canada and other countries tightened sanctions linked to Moscow’s support for rebels in eastern Ukraine,
