She said that Russia was already discussing with Egypt, its main wheat customer, how to use Russian seeds and technologies to increase production there and help it to strengthen the country’s food security.

“We understand that such a task will sooner or later be faced by any country in our world. Therefore, it is no longer enough to limit ourselves to simple trade in grain or oil and fat products,” Lut told the World Grain and Pulses Forum in Dubai.

Lut said that Russia, which historically used seeds mainly imported from Europe, had managed to raise self-sufficiency in seeds to 70 per cent last year from 60 per cent in 2022, and supplied domestically selected seeds to 35 countries by 2025.

“We envision the continuation of our cooperation in the development of joint technologies,” she said.

Russia is currently supplying 78 per cent of its wheat to traditional customers in the Middle East and Africa, mostly through the terminals located on the Black Sea, Lut said.

Russia aims to raise exports by 50 per cent

“The overwhelming majority of countries strive to ensure their own food security not only through controlled food supplies but also through their own production,” Lut said, stressing that Russia was ready to support this drive.

“To be under the illusion or in the paradigm that Russia will always supply grain or bulk vegetable oil groups to the markets of our partner countries is truly a misconception.”

Russia nonetheless aims to raise agricultural exports by 50 per cent by 2030, and Lut said that the country still wanted to boost its grain exports to 80 million metric tons by the same deadline, up from 53 million tons in the 2024/25 marketing season.

The official grain export forecast for the current marketing season is 50 million tons.

She said that Russia would seek to eliminate middlemen in its global grain trade and sell to end-chain customers directly, while developing new grain terminals in the Baltic and railroad supplies to the Far East.

Lut said that trade through the Black Sea terminals, Russia’s main agricultural export gateway, has not decreased despite the war in Ukraine, which she described as the “current situation”.

Russia has also been increasing supplies through the Caspian Sea, which mainly go to Iran, another major buyer of Russian wheat, describing the Caspian as “also a difficult zone”.

The overall agricultural trade shipping capacity should grow by 25 per cent to 100 million tons by 2030, Lut said.

— Writing by Gleb Bryanski in Moscow

The post Russia targets seeds market as traditional export customers boost grains production appeared first on Farmtario.

Around 700,000 tonnes of wheat haven’t been released from customs, causing around 80 per cent of mills producing commercially sold bread, pasta, and other goods to “cease activity completely,” according to a Sept. 26 letter from the Federation of Egyptian Industries’ Chamber of Cereals to the supply minister.

While global wheat prices have fallen to their levels before the Russia-Ukraine war, prices in Egypt have risen due to depleting stocks, said Hussein Boudy, the chamber’s deputy head.

Egypt’s importers can no longer replenish their wheat stocks amid a dollar shortage caused by a rising import bill and decreasing tourism revenues from two of its largest markets — Ukraine and Russia. Loss of confidence in the Egyptian pound by investors also contributed to the shortage.

Wheat prices rose by around 10 per cent to 9,000 Egyptian pounds (C$618.42) per tonne in the last two weeks, Boudy said, while some traders reported steeper rises of up to 15 per cent. Flour also rose by 18 per cent to 11,500 pounds (C$790.15) per tonne, traders said.

“Bigger mills… used to store for a month and a half or two, but today some mills have stocks for seven to five days.” said Walid Diab, managing director of the Egyptian Millers Company. “We are in the red zone.”

Boudy added that one company had requested to purchase from the state grains buyer’s strategic reserves.

The government “will work on the issue” of declining private sector wheat stocks, Egypt’s supply minister told Reuters on the sidelines of a conference on Sunday.

Supply crunch

As foreign currency reserves dwindled, authorities introduced rules in March that restricted access to dollars for imports.

Although wheat and other strategic goods were exempted, private sector traders say wheat import payments have nearly stopped since September and no new contracts have been signed.

Imports of corn, poultry and soybeans have also been affected, traders say.

“Suppliers understand that there’s an issue with Egypt but now they don’t want to do new business until the old stocks are released,” said one local trader.

Since early September, only 2,000-3,000 tonnes of wheat got through customs, the Chamber’s letter said. Monthly private sector needs are estimated at around 450,000 tonnes, and, according to the Chamber, mills need the immediate release of around 300,000 tonnes.

The supply crunch has caused a spike in the price of bread in some bakeries, said Hesham Soliman, a Cairo-based private sector trader.

There were no signs of shortages at bakeries, said Attia Hammad of the Cairo Chamber of Commerce, though he said some bakeries could hike prices or decrease the weight of loaves because of rising costs.

Egypt, with a population of 104 million, is typically the world’s biggest wheat importer. Private sector imports recently overtook those by the state buyer, which purchases wheat for a large subsidized bread programme.

— Sarah El Safty is a Reuters commodities correspondent in Cairo.

The post Egypt’s private sector wheat imports stall due to dollar shortage appeared first on Farmtario.