Russia and China had signed two food safety agreements on Russian grains including wheat, corn, rapeseed, soybean and rice, during a visit by the Federation's Prime Minister, Dmitry Medvedev, to Beijing.

According to Sergei Dankvert, the head of Russia's food safety authority, Rosselkhoznadzor, these agreements would expand access to China's grain market and came after several years of negotiations with the country.

However, wheat from Russia are only limited to those sourced from several Siberian region, namely, the Altai, Krasnoyarsk, Novosibirsk and Omsk, said Yuliya Melano, a  Rosselkhoznadzor representative.

For corn, rapeseed, soybean and rice, these are permitted to be sourced from Russia's far east regions, including Khabarovsk, Primorsk, Baikal and Amur.

Russia serves as one of the biggest wheat exporters to North Africa and the Middle East. With its major production regions in the south of the country, the Federation expects a bumper crop of more than 100 million tonnes for a third consecutive year in 2016.