July 4, 2025

Russian wheat exports fell fourfold in June

In June of this year, Russia's wheat exports reached 1.12 million tonnes, a significant decline of four times compared to the same month in the previous year, according to data reported by Interfax and sourced from the Russian Grain Union monitoring.

Elena Tyurina, director of the analytical department at the Russian Grain Union, clarified that in June, Russian wheat was supplied to 16 countries, compared to 49 countries a year earlier. The largest buyer was Egypt, but shipments fell 4.7 times, down to 254,000 tonnes. Turkey reduced purchases by 3.3 times, to 137,000 tonnes. Shipments to Algeria, which was an active wheat buyer last season, dropped 14 times, to 33,000 tonnes, and to Bangladesh - 2.8 times, to 55,000 tonnes.

"Meanwhile, exports to Israel increased by 44%, to 104,000 tonnes, to Djibouti by 43.5%, to 69,000 tonnes and to Sri Lanka - almost doubled, to 56,500 tonnes," the analyst added.

Tyurina believes the main reason for the drop in shipments to these countries is the lack of a discount on Russian wheat prices compared to European wheat.

"This is a very important factor when selling wheat on the global market, which is why we see a decline in shipments to countries that replace Russian wheat with European and Australian supplies," she said.

Speaking about the preliminary results for the whole season, Tyurina said that 46.5 million tonnes of Russian grain were shipped to foreign markets, which is nearly one-third less than in the previous agricultural year.

"But this is not the lowest figure in the last five years. The minimum was 42.6 million tonnes in the Marketing Year (MY) 2021/22 season," the expert noted.

Russian wheat exports for the 2024/25 MY are estimated at 41.5 million tonnes, which is 28% less than in the previous season. The lowest figure was also recorded in the 2021/22 season (36 million tonnes).

-      APK Inform