At the same time, demand is growing from Algeria, Bangladesh, Saudi Arabia and other countries that are “gradually reorienting” towards supplies from the Eurasian nation.
More than two-thirds of Russian grain produced in the first two months of the new agricultural period (starting July 1, 2023) was exported to the Middle East and North African markets, according to the assessment of the Russian federal center Agroexport.
«In the first two months of the new season, Russia shipped a record volume of wheat to foreign markets, exceeding 9 million tons. More than two-thirds of Russian grain is exported to markets in middle East y North Africa. These traditional markets include Egyptone of the largest importers of wheat in the world,” declared the president of the board of directors of the Union of Grain Exporters, Eduard Zernin.
“At the same time, demand is growing from Algeria, Bangladesh, Saudi Arabia and other Asian and African countries, which are gradually reorienting towards supplies from Russia,” he added.
Israel, Kenya, Brazil and Yemen also appear among the top 10 countries for supplies from Russia for the first time. Zernin pointed out that these results are the product of «grain diplomacy» carried out by the authorities and exporters of the Eurasian country.
“They are the ones who received the least from the agreement”
This positive trend is observed two months after the expiration of the agreement between Russia, Ukraine, Turkey and the UN on the export of grain from Ukrainian ports through the Black Sea. Moscow decided not to extend the pact due to non-compliance with the agreed conditions.
Russian authorities have repeatedly pointed out that under the grain deal, most of the supplies, contrary to what was agreed, went to EU countries, while Kiev continued to receive income and “the poorest countries from Africa were the least benefited«.
Moscow, for its part, has always been open to cooperation with the countries of the continent and even offered replace free grain supplies from Ukraine to countries in need.