Russia says not interested in prolonging Black Sea grain deal

MOSCOW/GENEVA, Dec 18 (PRIME) -- Russia is not interested in prolongation of the Black Sea Grain Initiative, and its suspension did not hurt its grain exports, Agriculture Minister Dmitry Patrushev told reporters on December 17.

“Taking suspension of the grain deal into consideration, our grain exports did not contract at all, they even grew slightly. As of mid-December, we have already exported more than 30 million tonnes this agricultural year (which started on July 1), which is an increase as compared with the same date of the previous year,” he said, pointing out that Russian grain had found its buyers.

“We are not interested in the grain deal’s prolongation,” he said.

Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Vershinin told reporters that no progress had been made in implementation of the U.N.–Russia memorandum on promotion of exports of Russian agricultural products, which was a part of the grain deal.

“We have already said that we cannot be satisfied with the Russia–U.N. memorandum’s implementation because no tangible results have been achieved and because we are facing the same obstacles in spite of the statements that agricultural exports and exports of fertilizers from Russia don’t allegedly fall under any sanctions,” he said.

The efforts of U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres are laudable in this regard, but Russia needs tangible results. It needs to see that the illegal Western anti-Russian sanctions don’t hurt the global food security and the international market of fertilizers, he said.

Moscow left the deal on July 18. President Vladimir Putin said in August that Russia was ready to return to it in case of switching the Russian Agricultural Bank to SWIFT.

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