Russian wheat exports back up to full speed: ministry

Russian wheat exports hit their highest weekly total since before Christmas as weather issues subsided and sellers made efforts to clear a backlog of delayed vessels, data from the ministry of agriculture showed Monday.

Weekly wheat volumes leaving Russia in the week to February 14 hit 914,000 mt, pushing total sales up to 25.43 million mt.

Total wheat sales are now 39.3% higher than at the same stage last year as exporters have sold a record-breaking harvest on the international market.

While barley sales only reached 65,000 mt as stocks draw down, total sales for the 2017/18 marketing year stand at 3.93 million mt – 96.1% higher than at the same stage last year.

Corn exports reached 110,000 mt, taking total sales to 2.93 million mt – a 3.2% drop on last year.

Total grain sales came to 1.1 million mt, with total sales for the marketing year now at 32.52 million mt, a 38.7% increase from a similar stage last year.

With total grain exports recently forecast at 45 million mt by the ministry of agriculture, Russian sellers will need to ship just under 700,000 mt of grain a week to the end of the marketing year to meet the target.