According to the RF Federal Customs Service statistics, during January-May Russia exported 11.5 mn tons of wheat and meslin, up 20.7% year-on-year. In terms of value, grain export increased by 16.7% up to $2.5 bn.
Wheat import into Russia during January-May 2020 declined by 4.1% down to 50.5 thousand tons. Corn import, on the contrary, grew by 48.1% up to 38.5 thousand tons. Barley import made 10.5 thousand tons surging 2.5-fold year-on-year.
In terms of value, wheat import was down 22.9% to $15.8 mn. Corn import was up 19.7% to $110.1 mn, barley import grew by 43.8% up to $2.3 mn.
In May 2020 alone, wheat and meslin export made 514.2 thousand tons, down 48.7% year-on-year and down 84.8% month-on-month. In terms of value, it dropped by 50.5% year-on-year and by 84.9% month-on-month to make $109.2 mn.
Earlier, the Russian government restricted grain export by introducing a quota of 7 mn tons for export of wheat, corn, rye, barley since April 1 till until the end of the grain season on June 30, 2020. As a result, grain traders finished export season ahead of schedule in May exhausting the export quota.
Wheat import in May made 10.2 thousand tons, down 29.7% year-on-year and up 2.6-fold month-on-month. Value-wise, wheat import declined by 11.1% year-on-year, but surged 2.7-fold month-on-month to $3.2 bn.
Corn import was up 7.3-fold year-on-year and up 13.8% month-on-month making 6.6 thousand tons. In terms of value, it remained much on the previous year’s level and dropped by 87.2% month-on-month to make $1.2 mn.
Barley import made 800 tons, up 2-fold year-on-year and down 75.8% month-on-month, worth $100 thousand, level with the previous year’s result and down 83.3% month-on-month.