(Reuters) – Russia may suspend exports of wheat, barley, maize (corn) and rye starting from Tuesday until June 30, the Interfax news agency reported on Monday, citing the agriculture ministry.
Russia is the world’s largest wheat exporter with Egypt and Turkey among the main buyers. It competes mainly with the European Union and Ukraine.
“The agriculture ministry and the trade ministry have prepared a draft government decree that would introduce a temporary ban on exports of the main grains from Russia from March 15 to June 30,” Interfax quoted the agriculture ministry as saying.
The agriculture ministry did not immediately reply to a Reuters request for comment.
Russia’s exportable surplus for the period is estimated at between 6 million and 6.5 million tonnes of wheat, Dmitry Rylko, the head of the IKAR agriculture consultancy, said.
Russian wheat exports are down by 45% since the start of the current July-June marketing season because of a smaller crop and grain export taxes as well as export quotas which Moscow has been using since 2021 as part of measures to stabilise domestic food inflation.
Last week, the economy ministry said that Russia would suspend grain exports to neighbouring ex-Soviet countries until the end of August to further strengthen its food security.
(Reporting by Reuters; Editing by Jan Harvey and Nick Macfie)
