Russia, Iran and Kazakhstan signed a wheat trade

Russia, Kazakhstan and Iran has signed a memorandum that sets out measures for expanding the wheat trade and creating favorable conditions for business.

According to the Russian Grain Union Vice President, the memorandum envisages a series of steps that will contribute to more effective operation of businesses in this sector. In particular, Russian and Kazakh wheat arriving in the Iranian market will first fall under the temporary import regime. A number of joint measures for optimizing marine logistics were defined.

“The matter concerned granting preferential treatment at the inter-governmental level to businesses making commercial wheat deliveries to the Iranian market, he said. – The volume of wheat supplies is set at up to 1.5 MMT a year.” However, the matter concerned a possible expansion of trade in other crops, too.

Noteworthy is that Iran is a priority destination for wheat supplies from Russia and Kazakhstan, but they have dwindled substantially since Iran banned imports.

According to UkrAgroConsult, Russia supplied just 77 KMT of wheat to Iran in the first half of the 2017/18 season against 332 KMT in MY 2016/17. Prior to the wheat import ban imposition, Russia exported 800 KMT to 1.7 MMT of wheat a season to Iran in 2012-2016.

At the same time, Kazakh wheat exports to Iran fell to 3 KMT in September-December 2017 against 200 KMT to 1 MMT annually supplied in 2011-2016.

As reminder, the secretary general of the Iran Federation of Food Industry Associations announced in February the country’s plan to purchase up to 100 KMT of Russian wheat a month in order to step up Iranian flour exports to Iraq.

Source: UkrAgroConsult