July 27, 2010

Russia remains as key player on grain market

Despite the current drought, Russia stays as a key player on the global grain market, especially in terms of exporting to Arab countries.

Russia and the Arab countries are destined for cooperation as two major centres in the current system of international relations. This opinion was voiced by the Director of the Centre for Partnership of Civilisations, Veniamin Popov.

"Both Russia and the Arab world will benefit from an upsurge in bilateral ties," he said. "Arab countries are experiencing keen shortages in grain, whereas Russia boasts vast farmlands. The two sides could reach agreement to supply the Arab countries with wheat and other grain crops for fifty or one hundred years. Expanding bilateral ties is the requirement of the day."     

Egypt was one of the first to seek grain cooperation with Russia. Russia, a top player on the Egyptian grain market, could compete with the US only.

"There are two major grain suppliers on the Arab market – Russia and the US. But strange incidents occur when all of a sudden, the Egyptian lawmakers start to criticise without any grounds the quality of Russian wheat, after it has been imported and passed quality control. Two days after Russia and Egypt signed a big contract on grain supplies, the Egyptian authorities detained another consignment of Russian grain. All this is the result of dishonest competition," said Federal agricultural service press secretary Alexei Alexeyenko.

     
Alexei Alekseyenko had to look into the nature of the claims and report the Russian position on the issue in the media. The resulting analysis confirmed that Russia is a trustworthy supplier. As a result, Egypt has turned down the American grain in favour of Russian and has purchased a total of 120 thousand tonnes of Russian grain.