Russian govt imposing grain export duties - Dvorkovich
MOSCOW. Dec 22 (Interfax) - The Russian government is imposing grain export duties, Deputy Russian Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich said at a meeting with Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and other deputy prime ministers.
"We'll draft a resolution on grain export duties, this will be done in 24 hours," he said.
Prime Minister Medvedev said at the meeting that Russia had a splendid harvest this year, and that exports had risen considerably, so the country needed a reserve. Therefore he recommended that proposals to impose administrative restrictions on grain exports be developed.
"This has to be done properly, in coordination with the leading market participants; temporarily, but flexibly enough to enable us to regulate the grain market situation and to provide the people with bread and baked products," he said.
Dvorkovich, for his part, said that the export potential that would ensure a stable market after a harvest of 104 million tonnes was an estimated 28 million tonnes, and that 21 million tonnes of that had already been shipped abroad.
He said measures had been taken last week to limit grain exports but these mostly concerned the strict observance of the law, for example stepping up control of grains shipments by truck and rail, and the issuance of phytosanitary certificates.
Dvorkovich said instructions had been given last week to firm up legislation in this area. "This really has been breached, above all when shipping grain by truck," he said. "There have been frequent cases of overloading, and instructions were given told Interfax stop such vehicles and send them back without exception. Grain shouldn't be exported this way," he said.
The procedure for issuing phytosanitary certificates and trans-shipping grain via ports was tightened last week. "Controls have been beefed up on the part of [transport watchdog] Rostransnadzor], we have put an end to so-called grey schemes for supplying grain, but this isn't enough to stabilize the situation and we'll be drafting proposals to impose export duty on grain," Dvorkovich said.