Export duties on Russian wheat to rise 7.9% as of Jan 11, duty on barley to stay at zero - Ministry of Agriculture

MOSCOW. De 29 (Interfax) - The duty on Russian wheat exports as of January 11 will be 4,165.9 rubles versus 3,859.7 rubles per tonne (valid from December 27 to January 10), the Ministry of Agriculture reports.

This represents a 7.9% increase.

The duty on barley for the third month in a row will be zero, whereas on corn it will increase to 1,431.7 rubles from 1,148.6 rubles per tonne.

Rates were calculated based on indicative prices: $250 per tonne for wheat (unchanged vs. the previous week), $172.3 for barley ($170.8 the previous week), and $195.2 for corn ($194.5 the previous week).

The duties will be valid through January 16 inclusive.

Russia introduced a grain damper mechanism on June 2, 2021, which provides for floating duties on exports of wheat, corn and barley and the return of funds received from them to subsidize agricultural producers. The amount of duties is calculated weekly using indicators based on export contract prices registered on the Moscow Exchange. At first, duty rates were calculated in dollars. Then, as of July 2022, they started being determined in rubles. The duty is 70% of the difference between the base and indicative prices.

The base price for calculating the export duty on wheat was increased to 17,000 rubles from 15,000 rubles per tonne as of June 2023; for barley and corn, it was increased to 15,875 rubles per tonne from 13,875 rubles.