Russia’s elevators ditch corn loadings as wheat retains priority

Elevators in Russia’s Black Sea port of Novorossiysk are not handling corn as the country’s logistics continue to prioritise exports of wheat on Panamax vessels at the expense of other crops or vessel sizes, market sources said Thursday.

The move reflects a broader trend to push the huge wheat crop towards export locations as quickly as possible and has seen corn exports dwindle in recent weeks.

“There are no offers at all for Russian corn, as most elevators in Novorossiysk don’t accept corn deliveries,” according to one broker.

According to government data from RusAgroTrans, 1.8 million mt of corn has been exported, roughly half the country’s volume for export, but down 5.2% on the levels seen at the same time last year.

Turkey, South Korea and Iran have taken the lion’s share of the volume exported between July 1 and November 30, a total of 1.3 million mt between them with Lebanon, Syria and Libya also in the top ten.

“All ports are trying to load wheat… 2 million mt has been exported, leaving only 1.5 to 2 million mt left,” a trading source said.

Wheat exports recently topped 17.6 million mt, 26.7% higher than the previous year, with the rush to move so much of Russia’s record breaking wheat crop creating fears of bottlenecks at port facilities as well as supporting freight prices for the Black Sea and the Azov Sea.

Russia has also actively supported improved trade relationships to further widen potential export markets, with the country recently revealing a deal with Brazil that will see Russian wheat head to Brazil with meat moving in the opposite direction.