March 21, 2012

Russia's 2011-12 grain exports likely to reach below set limit

Russia's 2011-12 grain exports are likely to total 25.5-26 million tonnes, significantly below the 27 million tonnes upper limit for exports set by the government, the country's largest grain railway transportation operator Rusagrotrans said Tuesday (Mar 20).

Rusagrotrans said Russia's grain exports in July-February totalled 20.6 million tonnes. Grain exports in February totalled 1.1 million tonnes, down from the 1.3 million tonnes exported in January. In February the southern ports of Novorossiysk and Tuapse handled 884,000 tonnes of grain, Taman 190,000 tonnes, and the Baltic ports 55,000 tonnes. Because of ice, the shallow water ports in the south handled practically no export grain.

Rusagrotrans estimates Russia's grain exports in March and April at 1.5-1.7 million tonnes a month.

The price of Russia's milling wheat March 16 was about US$275/tonne FOB, higher than the price of US wheat, which is US$259.8, but lower than the price of French wheat, which is US$288.7, Rusagrotrans said.

Russia's domestic prices in the south for fourth grade milling wheat, because of lower export demand, fell by RUB150 (US$5.13) in the preceding week to RUB7,100 (US$243) per tonne.