CORRECTED: Spec change, big crops boosts Vietnam's Black Sea wheat imports

Vietnam has increased the volume of wheat imports from the Black Sea in recent months amid relatively more competitive prices compared to its traditional supply options, with the volume booked to date already exceeding the annual import levels from the region seen in the last five years, according to data seen by Agricensus.

Line-ups seen by Agricensus showed that so far in the 2023/24 marketing year up to 1 million mt of wheat sourced from the Black Sea is indicated for import into Vietnam through the period from October to December.

This is already above the typical levels for the country's annual imports from the region over the last three years, which stand at 562,193 mt on per year according to the customs data.

The figure has almost exceeded the annual result seen in the 2019/20 marketing year, when 1.1 million mt was imported.

That comes as the prices for wheat sourced from the Black Sea region have held at the most competitive levels in recent weeks, and Asian buyers - including Vietnam - have used the opportunity to buy at lower levels.

Vietnam used to buy more than half of its wheat supply from Australia, while the Black Sea - with the exception of Russia - was not on the list of main suppliers. 

Collectively, the share of Romanian, Bulgarian, Ukrainian and Moldavian wheat import collectively only reached around 8% of the total imports.

Russia occupied second place, behind Australia, with an 8.74% stake in the Vietnamese import market, but over the last two marketing years the volume supplied has dropped significantly amid quality issues, big crops in Australia and then risks related to sanctions and supply following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

2023/24

Romania supplied the biggest share among the Black Sea volumes shipped to date this year with around 378,000 mt indicated, followed by Ukrainian at 240,000 mt and Russia at around 145,000 mt, and one 60,000 mt cargo not yet been identified in terms of loading country. 

In terms of the amount sourced from Ukraine, most of the volumes loaded from the Romanian port of Constanta which is used as a key transit location for Ukrainian grain since the start of the full-scale war with Russia.

However, one vessel was also seen loading from a Ukrainian deep sea port and transiting through the humanitarian corridor and is scheduled for an early December arrival.

That represents a return to the Vietnamese market for Black Sea volumes, coming after Vietnamese authorities back in August 2023 removed thistle from a list of items subject to import quarantine checks for wheat.

That has meant that imports from the Black Sea, EU, Canada and US could go more smoothly.

Before that move, Vietnam was also able to import from those origins, but selling into the country was associated with additional difficulties and complexities, as local millers often avoided buying Black Sea wheat supplies directly.

Trade sources said that, among the wheat that already has reached Vietnam, Romanian origins appeared to show better quality compared to either Russian or Ukrainian origin.

At the same time, the trade was said to be switching towards supply from South American origins, also amid relatively cheaper prices amid expectations that Argentina's production will recover in the year ahead after multiple drought-hit years.

CORRECTED: the article was corrected amid a miscalculation made in the initial one, with Russian wheat export to Vietnam corrected to be at around 145,000 mt versus 325,000 mt initially reported, while for Romanian origin the volume was corrected to 378,000 mt from 318,000 mt.