Page 15 - RusRPTMay20

2.7 ​ ​Russia caps grain exports to maintain prices on domestic market
Russia, has capped grain exports until July after government export quotas were reached to head off a spike in food prices on the domestic market​, the Ministry of Agriculture announced on April 26.
Earlier this month, the Russian government approved seven-million-ton caps on exports of certain crops. The restrictions, intended to secure the domestic food market, apply to such essential crops as wheat and maslin, rye, barley and corn.
The new quotas are effective from April 1 to June 30, and members of the Russia-led Eurasian Economic Union are excluded from the restrictions. These allowances have been used up rapidly and were finally “fully exhausted” on April 26, according to the Ministry of Agriculture.
Reaching the threshold does not warrant an immediate ban on exports or suspension of grain imports, as traders usually file customs declarations in advance. In fact, shipments are still in progress and are not expected to stop until at least the end of May.
According to analysts’ estimates, actual April exports will stand at around four million tons of grain, including over three million tons of wheat, and the rest of the shipments go to their buyers next month. Thus exports may not actually be halted before June.
“The world is not going to be left without Russian grain,” Oleg Sukhanov, head of the grain desk at the Institute for Agricultural Market Studies, said in a comment to RT. But the halt to exports is likely to send the price of grains up, especially for wheat, as Russia has been the world’s largest exporter of grain for most of the last four years. Grain prices rose sharply earlier this month amid expectations of Russia’s restrictions. The depletion of the quota is
15​ RUSSIA Country Report​ May 2020 ​ ​www.intellinews.com