Against the backdrop of the blockade of Ukrainian ports, Russia tripled its flour exports

In 2022, Russia increased flour exports by 3.3 times, reaching a record 875,000 tons of wheat flour against 259,000 tons in 2021. Such preliminary data were announced by the Russian IKAR.

The Russians called one of the factors of such a sharp growth the fact that “Ukraine sharply reduced the export of flour, which contributes to the increase of supply (by Russia) both to countries – traditional importers of Russian flour, and to new markets.”

According to Iryna Glazunova, deputy director of the mentioned institute, in 2022 the composition and market shares of importers of Russian wheat flour will radically change. The leading positions were taken by Iraq with a share of 21.7%, followed by Afghanistan (16.9%) and Turkey (10.5%).

As you know, since the middle of February of this year, the Russian fleet in the Black Sea began to block the work of Ukrainian ports, through which the lion’s share of the export of domestic agricultural products passed. After the start of a full-scale Russian military invasion, the work of Ukrainian seaports was stopped. It was possible to partially restore the operations of the ports of Odesa, Pivdenny and Chornomorsk only since August as part of the grain initiative. However, Russian representatives are obstructing the work of the grain corridor in every possible way, in particular, by delaying the inspections of vessels and artificially creating queues near the Bosphorus.

Thus, by blocking Ukrainian sea exports, the Russians not only blackmail the world with food inflation and the threat of famine, but also create conditions for their own producers to obtain record profits, as in the case of flour.

Tags: flour, Russia, export