Russia maintains 2nd place among barley suppliers to S. Korea in Jan, increases exports 9.3-fold

MOSCOW. Feb 16 (Interfax) - South Korea imported 8,200 tonnes of barley from Russia in January, up 9.3-fold compared to the figure from a year earlier (883 tonnes), according to the country's customs statistics.

The value of supplies increased to $2 million from $215,000 in January 2025.

Russia, as a year ago, was the second largest supplier of barley to the South Korean market. In January 2026, Australia was the leader, exporting 14,500 tonnes of the product for $4.9 million.

Overall, Russia is one of the major suppliers of barley to the global market. According to the Agroexport federal center, Russia exported 4 million tonnes of barley from July 2025 to January 2026. The largest buyers were Iran (more than 1.8 million tonnes), Turkey (0.5 million tonnes) and Saudi Arabia (0.4 million tonnes).

There has recently been an increase in demand for barley on the global market, which supports Russian prices for it, Agroexport said. "Given the high export quota in 2026 - 20 million tonnes total for wheat, barley and corn compared to a zero quota for barley a year earlier - we expect that Russian exporters will be able to further increase shipments," analysts at Agroexport said.

At the same time, according to South Korean customs statistics, corn supplies from Russia decreased more than 50% in January, to 20,500 tonnes from 45,000 tonnes in January 2025. Their value fell to $5.3 million from $11.96 million, respectively.

The largest supplier of corn to the country's market in January this year was the USA at 704,100 tonnes.

Overall, last year South Korea purchased 531,160 tonnes of grain products from Russia compared to 311,340 tonnes in 2024.