Official: Russia to exhaust grain export quota till mid-May

MOSCOW, Apr 17 (PRIME) – Russian grain exporters will exhaust a 7 million tonne export quota until mid-May or even earlier, Deputy Agriculture Minister Oksana Lut told reporters on Friday.

“The government made an urgent decision on the need to launch the mechanism and set a quota of 7 million tonnes until the end of the current season taking into account volatility of the exchange rate and rising grain prices, which has a significant impact on processers. The amount was calculated on request of the market taking into account the carryover stock as of July 1,” she said.

“But today, the tendency is that the global prices grew to the levels that we think are very good, and producers started to sell grain to exporters actively. Of the quota, 2 million tonnes were taken up as of April 14. Given the fact that about 1 million tonnes is exported each week, the quota will be exhausted in mid-May or even earlier.”

There is no sense in introducing an export duty on grain at least until the start of the next agricultural season on July 1. “We will track the situation next season and understand the need of additional decisions later,” she said.

She also said that the ministry received information that some grain elevators are raising prices for unloading of grain for the winners of the grain intervention auctions. “Before the start of interventions, the price was around 500–700 rubles per tonne, but now the elevators notify the winners that prices grew to 1,500–2,500 rubles. It makes the deal economically inefficient for processers,” she said.

This creates artificial barriers for the buyers so that elevators continue getting money from the federal budget for grain storage. The authority will initiate inspections of these elevators by the Federal Antimonopoly Service, she said.

(74.7119 rubles – U.S. $1)

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