September 21, 2009

Despite the tendency of the seasonal growth of exports compared to July indices (growth totalled 35 percent), according to preliminary data, in August 2009, Russia's general volume of grain export supplies totalled nearly 1.7 to 1.8 million tonnes, down 24-28 percent compared to the indices of August 2008.

Grain exports through railway lines totalled nearly 675 thousand tonnes, declared the press-cutting service of CJSC "Rusagrotrans". Large volumes of grain harvests in countries-importers of Russian grains became the main reason of the decrease of the export rates. According to the forecast of the Department of Agriculture of the USA, in 2009-10 MY, the countries of the North Africa will increase the production rates by 4.4 mln tonnes - to 19 mln tonnes, and the Middle East countries - by 4 mln tonnes, to 36 mln tonnes. As a result, in July-August of 2009, grain exports from Russia totaled nearly 3-3.1 mln tonnes as opposed to 3.3 mln tonnes in 2008.

However, other large-scale countries-exporters of grains on the world market also decreased own trading volumes, not only Russia. During July-August of 2009, wheat exports from Ukraine totalled 1.2 million tonnes as opposed to 1.5 million tonnes (down 20 percent) and etc. According to forecasts of the analytical center of "Rusagrotrans", in September, Russia will export nearly 1.6-1.8 million tonnes of grains, down 43 percent compared to the same period of 2008. But despite the decrease of export trading, in 2009-10 MY, Russia will stay among the largest grain suppliers on the world market, with the USA and Canada. The market of grains needs rather serious investments to the infrastructure from institutional investors and accepting of law measures for export supporting.