Page 69 - RusRPTJan23

than in September and 29% more than a year ago. They reached $183mn. In ten months, American imports of Russian fertilisers rose to $1.36bn, already more than in all of 2021 ($1.28bn).
US imports of Russian raw palladium totaled almost $189mn in October, the highest since February 2022 ($229.7mn). In ten months, the United States purchased more than $1bn worth of palladium from Russia, providing more than 30% of this commodity's imports. In addition to palladium, in October the US imported platinum worth $34.7mn and rhodium worth $29.6mn from Russia (in September it was zero and $7mn, respectively). Rhodium is the rarest and most expensive precious metal that is used in various industries. All platinum group metals are imported from Russia to the United States duty-free.
Russia imported about 2mn tonnes of critical goods worth $17bn from May 2022 within the parallel import framework, head of the Federal Customs Service Vladimir Bulavin said on November 1.
Russia’s exports of timber products have decreased by 10% this year due to sanctions, the press service of Roslesinforg told TASS. The crisis on the real estate market in Asia, which actively purchases Russian plywood, has also affected the exports, the press service added. The press service specified that the Asian market is also experiencing a crisis in the real estate market this year, which is caused by an increase in key rates by the European Central Bank and the US Federal Reserve. This led to a decrease in demand for sawn timber and plywood and affected Russian supplies.
Exports of agricultural products from Russia to Asian countries in January-October 2022 increased by 14% compared to the same period in 2021, according to Agroexport centre under the Russian Ministry of Agriculture. According to Agroexport, the supply of fish and seafood, sunflower and rapeseed oil, poultry meat, and a variety of other items to this region have increased. In particular, China in 2022 retained the second place among the buyers of Russian agricultural products. According to analysts, in the first 10 months of 2022, agricultural and food products were exported from Russia to China by 34% more than in the same period in 2021. This was partly owing to a surge in rapeseed oil sales, which climbed 2.2-fold and became the biggest category in Russian supplies to China. Frozen fish came in second, with supply increasing by 81%.
Russia’s Union of Grain Exporters projects grain exports from the country at 4.5mn tonnes in December compared to 3.4mn tonnes in the previous year, and at 26mn tonnes in the first half of the agricultural year (July-December) compared with 23.6mn tonnes in the previous year, Chairman of the Union Eduard Zernin told reporters on December 7.
Russian seaborne coal exports were closed to their highest since 2017 in October 2022 in view of transit restrictions for this commodity being
69 RUSSIA Country Report January 2023 www.intellinews.com