Russian wheat exports to Tunisia surge to over 400,000 t in July-Dec

MOSCOW. Dec 22 (Interfax) - Russia exported 412,000 tonnes of wheat to Turkey in the first half of the 2023/2024 agricultural year (July-December), 50% more than the 278,000 tonnes exported to the North African country in the whole of the previous agricultural year and more than the record 306,000 tonnes exported in the 2017/2018 agricultural year, Rusagrotrans' analytics center told Interfax.

Hard wheat made up a third of these exports, the center said.

Barley exports to Tunisia grew to 248,000 tonnes in July-December and also far exceeded the figure of 160,000 tonnes for all of the 2022/2023 agricultural year. Russian barley exports to Tunisia reached a record of more than 510,000 tonnes in the 2020/2021 agricultural year, and "it could be reached" this season, the center said.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said at a press conference in Tunisia that the country has expressed interest in expanding imports of Russian grain.

"Today we confirmed interest in having the intergovernmental commission, which will resume its work in the first quarter of next year, monitor all these processes and provide a political push where needed," Lavrov said.

"But the interest in expanding supplies of our grain is clear, the president of Tunisia spoke about this today. We, as you know, are ready for this. Thanks to the work of our farmers and weather conditions, we have a very bumper harvest for the second and even third consecutive year. Not like last year, but one that make it possible to ensure exports virtually in the record amounts of last year," Lavrov said.

Russia exported a record 60 million tonnes of grain in the 2022/2023 agricultural year, including 47 million tonnes of wheat.