Russia allows UGC to sell one million tonnes of grain

The Russian government has allowed the state grain trader, the United Grain Company (UGC), to sell up to one million tonnes of grain this year, so that part of UGC's huge supplies can be exported.

A government order allows the sale of milling and feed wheat, milling rye and feed barley, acquired on the domestic market in 2005-2006 and 2008.

Russia's grain intervention supplies currently stand at 10 million tonnes, more than one-tenth of the 97 million tonnes of grain that the country harvested last year.

Sergei Levin, UGC's CEO said in December it could sell up to four million tonnes of grain from the inventories this year. UGC, as a state company, needs approval from the government to implement its export plans.

On Monday (Apr 19), Levin said UGC was in talks to sell 100,000 tonnes of wheat and flour to Nicaragua after agreeing on the sale of 300,000 tonnes of wheat to Bangladesh.

UGC was also finalising preparations to ship 56,835 tonnes of feed wheat and feed barley to Mongolia, which it expects to start this week and finish before the middle of June. It has so far sold domestically its supplies of 154,987 tonnes of corn and is shipping 100,000 tonnes of wheat to Cuba.