Growth in the Russian agricultural sector increased from
2.6% last year to around 4% in 2016, helped by a record grain harvest of 119mmt
including 72mmt of wheat.
Russia is now expected to become this seasons world’s top
wheat exporter with the government reporting they have ramped up the grain
export capacity to 45mmt and will now focus on developing infrastructure in areas
away from the ports.
Russia has supported the development of its port capacity as the
government aims to drive production to 150mmt by 2030.
When Russia first started to export grain in 2002, the
transhipment capacity was 5mmt, if Russia boosts its grain crop to 150mmt then
it would have 50mmt available for export compared with 35 million tonnes in the
current marketing year.