Russia will suspend its grain exports until July 1, the Ministry of Agriculture said on Sunday.
Russia had previously set the grain export quota of 7 million tons for the period April to June due to the outbreak of the new corona virus. This online grain export quota expired on Sunday, according to data from the ministry.
"After all of the grain declared for export has been exported, exports of wheat, rye, barley and corn to countries that are not members of the Eurasian Economic Union (led by Russia) will cease by July 1" the ministry said in a statement.
Russian customs will not issue new export documents after the quota is exhausted, the ministry added.
The quota ran out quickly this weekend as traders requested customs documents for May and June, analysts said on Saturday, adding that despite this, deliveries from the world's largest wheat exporter would continue.
The high speed with which the quota was used up shows that these were not real export orders, but rather the consequence that the traders provided the necessary documents to ensure that they had a place in this quota. Russia's grain exports are actually around 4 million tons in April, leaving almost 3 million tons for export in May and June, although the quota is officially exhausted, said IKAR and SovEcon this weekend.
It is not officially known who exactly won the quota, but the Russian Union of Grain Exporters, which includes two trading companies that sold three deliveries to the Egyptian state grain purchaser GASC from May to June, does so that there is no risk for Russian exporters to fulfill their contracts.
The union "sees no problem in meeting Russian exporters' obligations to GASC," union leader Eduard Zernin told Reuters last week. "Everything is settled," he said.
Source
Hansa Terminhandel GmbH
