Russian wheat loadings slow on week: RusAgroTrans

The pace of sales from Russian wheat exporters has fallen back on the week to January 23, data from logistics firm RusAgroTrans showed Wednesday.

A total of 617,000 mt of wheat was sold from January 16-23, according to the data, down from 799,000 mt the week before.

Despite the apparent slowdown in the pace of sales over the course of the week, Russian wheat loadings continue to outpace those in previous years by a significant margin.

Wheat sales from January 1-23 now stand at 1.81 million mt, a 76% increase on the same period last year.

Corn sales, meanwhile, have slipped back further below last year’s figure and are down 20% year-on-year at 316,000 mt.

Barley also narrowed over the same period, dropping from a 71% year-on-year increase to 43%. Total exports for the period now stand at 164,000 mt.

Russia is the world’s biggest wheat exporter and its fast pace of sales this marketing year has left other, less competitive, producers struggling to keep up.

It is currently exporting its biggest crop on record, with ministry officials recently announcing they expect wheat sales to top 47 million mt by the end of the marketing year on June 30.