MOSCOW, March 30 Russia will not be the loser due to the withdrawal of Western grain traders from the country — Russian grain will continue to enter the world market, and it will even become easier for Moscow determine the direction and price of exports, according to Bloomberg.
The Russian representative office of the American company Cargill, one of the world's largest suppliers of agricultural products, at the end of March informed the Russian Ministry of Agriculture about plans to stop grain exports from the country in the next agricultural season (from July 1, 2023). Later, information appeared in the media about the same plans of another major global supplier of agricultural products — Canadian Viterra. The American agro-industrial company Bunge left the Russian market last year.
«Despite the departure of leading Western traders, Russian grain and other crops will continue to enter world markets,» writes Bloomberg. As explained in the material, inside the country, local traders will replace foreign ones, and outside the country, Western traders will continue to ship Russian grain.
Moreover, according to the agency, «the door» was shown to them by Moscow. Bloomberg lists the positives for her: «Without Western traders buying and selling grain inside Russia, Washington and Brussels will lose a key source of information. In any case, the Kremlin will have more say over where — and at what price — its grain will go.» .
Russian Uralchem is ready to buy the assets of global grain traders Cargill and Viterra if they leave the country, Kommersant wrote in December, citing a letter from company CEO Dmitry Konyaev to President Vladimir Putin.
In 2022, Russia harvested a record grain harvest — 157.7 million tons in weight after completion, which is 29.9% more than the previous year's harvest, including increased wheat harvest by 37%, to 104.2 million tons. The Ministry of Agriculture reported on March 1 that the target for grain exports in the 2022-2023 agricultural year is about 60 million tons; the export potential for wheat was previously estimated at 39.5 million tons.