Russia plans no grain export ban despite falling ruble-minister

MOSCOW, Dec 15 (PRIME) -- Russia’s Agriculture Ministry is not considering restrictions on grain exports although the ruble’s devaluation made exports more profitable than local sales, Agriculture Minister Nikolai Fyodorov told PRIME in an interview Monday.

“As Agriculture Minister, I see no threat of an embargo as we are not considering such options. They are unreasonable – they bring lots of reputation losses and little good,” Fyodorov said.

The ministry will use other support mechanisms to regulate the grain market and protect interests of domestic consumers, like loans from state banks for grain purchases and state interventions.

Russia can only ban grain exports through offshore countries, the minister added, but it is not on the current agenda and will be considered later.

The Agriculture Ministry expects Russia to export 30 million tonnes of grain in 2014-2015. Russia harvested 104 million tonnes of grain this year.

Russia has in general substituted the food, which was banned in retaliation to Western sanctions, Fyodorov also said.

“In the four months we, in general, have replaced physical imports of products, which were banned due to Russia’s forced measures,” Fyodorov said. “It is not a 100% substitution, considering the range, but the general problem of finding alternative suppliers from foreign countries is solved.”

On August 7, Russia banned imports of beef, pork, poultry, fish, cheese, dairy products, fruit and vegetables from Australia, Canada, Norway, the U.S. and the E.U. for one year as an answer to Western sanctions. Since then, it has been in talks with other countries on increasing supplies to replace the banned ones.

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