Russian, Turkish economy ministries to discuss grain supplies soon

ARKHANGELSK, Mar 29 (PRIME) -- The Russian and Turkish economy ministries will soon discuss exports of Russian grain to Turkey, Deputy Economic Development Ministry Alexei Gruzdev told PRIME on Wednesday.

“We are still in contact with the Economy Ministry of Turkey. We expect that we will hold consultations soon to discuss our further cooperation. As we see it, the loss of Russia as a major supplier of grain will hurt the economy of Turkish exporters that process the product and export it further significantly,” Gruzdev said.

“The Agriculture Ministry is now working on the possibility of substitution. We do not see this issue as a closed topic, as we still have no notification from the Turkish authorities on how exactly these new decisions will be implemented.”

On March 17, Russian exporters complained to the Agriculture Ministry that Turkey had stopped license issuance on imports of wheat, corn, sunflower seed meal and oil. Kommersant business daily reported that Ankara wants to introduce a 130% duty on the imports. The Turkish government denied any prohibitions but head of the Turkish agricultural exporters’ association Zekeriya Mete said that the Economy Ministry had tacitly introduced “a new rule” for Russian wheat in retaliation for Russia keeping restrictions on imports of Turkish goods.

Gruzdev said that representatives of the two countries to the World Trade Organization (WTO) had had a meeting, and Russian representative Gennady Ovechko raised the problem. “There was a meeting, we raised the issue, and we are waiting (for an answer)…We have to receive official notifications in order to make any decision (within the WTO), but so far we have nothing,” he said.

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