In a newspaper interview published on Tuesday, Dmitry Patrushev, the Deputy Prime Minister, said that low global prices have slowed down Russian grain exports during this marketing season. He also stressed that Russian grain remains in high demand.

Patrushev said that Russia intends to export between 53 and 55 million metric tons of grain during the marketing season, which runs from July 1 until then. Patrushev?said that Russia plans to export between 53 million?metric tons?and 55 million tons of grain in the marketing season that runs until July 1.

"Today, we are really in a period of lower prices worldwide. The?export numbers reflect this. Since August, the trend has leveled out," Patrushev told Izevstia in an interview.

The Russian grain exports dropped sharply from 70 million tons in 2023/24 to just 30 million tons this season, which undermines President Vladimir Putin's goal to increase agricultural exports by 50 percent by 2030.

Exports are slowing down due to a number of factors, including bad weather in southern grain-producing regions, higher fuel and fertilizer costs, and export taxes that will be introduced in 2021 in order to protect the domestic markets.

Despite the slowdown in exports, Russia is still the largest grain exporter in the world. Patrushev stated that after a summer slump, exports had been increasing in recent months. Russia could increase supplies to the global market if prices rise.

"Russia is always a reliable partner in trade, and we fulfill our obligations." Patrushev added that there was an understanding between the parties regarding the fact that the volume of supplies would increase when the pricing environment changed.

The last season, 83% of Russian grain exports were wheat. However, the government's efforts to diversify the agricultural exports and increase the share of other commodities have not been successful.

Analysts with Rusagrotrans estimated wheat exports for the first half of the season, from July to December. This is down?from the record 29.1 millions in the same time period last year.

Sovecon, a Russian consultancy, said on 22 December that Russia had been sowing less grain due to declining margins ever since export taxes were introduced, which are a major irritation for Russian farmers. (Reporting and editing by PhilippaFletcher; GlebBryansk)

(source: Reuters)