No holiday slowdown for Russian grain exports: RusAgroTrans

Russian grain sales continued at pace during the traditional holiday period, with 542,000 mt of grain leaving the country from January 1-9, according to data from grains logistics firm RusAgroTrans released Thursday.

Wheat exports in the first nine days of the year came to 397,000 mt – up 55% on the same period at the start of 2017, while barley sales were 72% higher year-on-year at 80,000 mt, and corn sales were up 196% to 64,000 mt.

In addition to sales to major export partners such as Turkey (149,000 mt), Egypt (105,000 mt), and Iran (68,000 mt), other noteworthy exports in the week included Venezuela (31,000 mt), Yemen (28,000 mt), and Latvia (22,000 mt).

A separate release from RusAgroTrans showed wheat exports for December totalled 4.22 million mt, a 61% increase on the same period in 2016.

December barley exports increased 264% year-on-year to 508,000 mt, while corn exports were 7% lower at 557,000 mt.

December sales destinations were a familiar list, with Egypt taking 19.6% of total grain exports at 1.05 million mt.

The remainder of the top five were made up of Turkey (916,000 mt), Vietnam (401,000 mt), Bangladesh (372,000 mt), and Iran (251,000 mt).