Iran, China purchase most of Russia's grain exports in 2026/2027 season - grain association

MOSCOW. Oct 9 (Interfax) - Iran and China have so far been the biggest importers of Russian grain in the 2026/2027 marketing year, which began in July 2026.

The Russian Grain Association said in a presentation during a session of the Golden Autumn 2026 exhibition that Iran and China had purchased 1.1 million tonnes collectively since the beginning of the season.

They were followed by Egypt, traditionally a major buyer, with imports totaling 873,000 tonnes, then Turkey with 583,000 tonnes and Azerbaijan with 448,000 tonnes.

Russian Grain Association head Ksenia Bolomatova said at the session that most of Russia's exports were currently being shipped from Baltic Sea, Far East and Caspian Sea ports due to logistics issues in the Azov-Black Sea basin.

She said that before, when 80% of exports were shipped via the Black Sea, exporters had not paid enough attention to the Baltic ports, Vysotsk in particular. "Who needs the Baltic when you have the Black Sea and you are developing that?" she said. "And in actual fact it is a very good thing that some people actually had more foresight. Now, everyone is looking at it [the Vysotsk port] and they are struck by how well prepared the infrastructure is there. There are two specialized grain terminals there, which have been up and running for three years."

She said that exporters were expecting the port to transship over 1.5 million tonnes of grain over the month.

As reported, this is the same as the transshipment volume for the whole of the last season.