Turkey regains second place among Russian grain importers in May - market expert
MOSCOW. June 6 (Interfax) - Turkey regained second place among importers of Russian grain in May, if only barely, the deputy head of CJSC Rusagrotrans' strategic marketing department Igor Pavensky told Interfax.
Turkey imported 147,000 tonnes of Russian grain in May (6.2% of total grain exports in the month), far behind the leader Egypt, which imported 657,000 tonnes (27.5%), Pavensky said.
"Although Turkey is back in second place, it is only a little ahead of other Russian grain importers," he said, noting that Tanzania imported 133,000 tonnes of Russian grain (5.6%).
Other countries "are nipping at Turkey's heels" due to the restrictions on Russian wheat imports that Ankara imposed in the spring.
Back in mid-March, Turkey dropped Russia from the list of countries eligible for duty-free grain exports, triggering a steep decline in deliveries and bumping Turkey from its lofty ranking among Russian grain importers. The restrictions were lifted at the beginning of May.
The fourth biggest importer of Russian grain in May was Yemen (131,000 tonnes), followed by Lebanon (122,000 tonnes) and Israel (118,000 tonnes).
In the current agricultural year (July 2016-June 2017), Russia reduced grain exports to Middle Eastern countries and increased them to countries elsewhere in Asia: it exported nearly 4.1 million tonnes to Asian countries through April 2017, up from 1.8 million tonnes in the same period of the previous farm year, while exports to the Middle East fell to just under 9.5 million tonnes from 11.6 million tonnes.
Exports also increased to countries in North Africa, to 8.8 million tonnes from 7.8 million tonnes.
In all, Russia will export 35.2 million tonnes of grain in the current farm year, Pavensky forecast, up from 33.9 million tonnes a year earlier. Including legumes and flour (in grain equivalent) the exports will reach 36.4 million tonnes, up from 35.3 million tonnes.
The total includes 27 million tonnes of wheat (compared with 24.6 million tonnes a year earlier) and a record 5.1 million tonnes of corn (4.6 million tonnes), while barley exports will drop to 2.7 million tonnes (4.3 million tonnes).