Russia is selling more and more grain to the EU. According to Eurostat data and analysed by Tofio Catön, Director of Field Crops at the Agriculture-Food Cooperatives, Russian grain purchases in 2023 increased by 22% per month and 10 times over the year. Since the start of the 2023/24 campaign, which began on 1 July and runs until 1 December, Russia has exported 2.23 Mt of cereals and pulses to the EU, more than double the same period of the previous campaign, when it reached 968,000 tonnes.
Spain was the main buyer of Russian wheat, purchasing %40 of the total. It imported 850,000 tonnes, almost 9 tonnes more than the 96,000 tonnes it imported in the same period of the previous season. It was also the largest buyer of peas, with 571,000 tonnes.
Italy increased its Russian wheat purchases almost 8-fold, from 205,000 tonnes to 812,000 tonnes, the second largest importer of Russian grain in the EU with 35% and the largest buyer of durum wheat with 583,000 tonnes Spain and Italy together imported 75% of the Russian grain entering the EU.
Belgium increased its purchases by 3.7%, from 52,000 to 198,000 tonnes (9% of the total).
Greece doubled its purchases from 85,000 to 160,000 tonnes (7% of the total)
Other origins
Ukraine remains the main exporter of grain to the EU. In the first six months of the campaign, it exported 8.54 Mt, one fifth less than in the same period of the previous year (10.66 Mt). Other cereal suppliers important for the EU market are Brazil with 2.88 million tonnes and Türkiye with 654,000 tonnes in the first six months of the campaign.
Ukraine exports less
Since the beginning of the 2023/24 season, Ukraine’s grain exports to all destinations amounted to 25.52 million tonnes, of which
- 13.82 million tonnes were corn
- 9.97 million tonnes were wheat
- 1.46 million tonnes were barley
In the same period of the 2022/23 season, this amount was 29.6 million tonnes.