Russian grain exporters not expecting major disruption in supplies to Turkey over earthquake

MOSCOW. Feb 6 (Interfax) - Russian grain exporters are not expecting critical disruption of their shipments to Turkey after the country was rocked by devastating earthquakes on Monday.

"According to our Turkish partners, the port of Iskenderun has been damaged, specifically its container terminal and supporting infrastructure. The condition of the grain terminal, which is expecting a delivery of 125,000 tonnes under the TMO [Turkish grain agency] tenders in February-first half of March, is not clear yet," Eduard Zernin, chief executive of the Grain Exporters' Union, told Interfax on Monday.

"At any rate, we are not expecting critical disruptions. Our Turkish partners have sufficient alternative port capacity to resolve urgent problems," he said.

According to foreign media reports citing a tweet by the Turkish Transport Ministry's head of main directorate, the Iskenderun port docks have collapsed. Operations at other ports, except Iskenderun, continue, the directorate said. Iskenderun is a small port in the Gulf of Alexandretta.

Turkey is among biggest buyers of Russian wheat. Grain market experts put its January 2023 imports at 370,000 tonnes, up 50% on the year earlier.

According to data from Rusagrotrans, a think tank, citing the pole.rf marketplace (part of Demetra Holding), in July 2022-January 2023 Turkey purchased 4.867 million tonnes of Russian wheat, versus 4.577 million tonnes in the previous year.