MOSCOW, RUSSIA – Russia is considering setting a wheat export quota of 9 million tonnes on wheat that is shipped from mid-February through June 30 in 2022, Bloomberg reported on Dec. 3, citing anonymous sources.

Bloomberg also cited sources saying that the total grains export quota during that period would be 14 million tonnes.

If implemented, the quota for that period in 2022 would be lower than the 17.5-million-tonne quota imposed during the same period in 2021. 

Food inflation in Russia is at a five-year high and the country already has a formula-based tax on grain exports which was implemented last June.

The Russian government on Oct. 28 cut its official grain harvest estimate for the 2021-22 marketing year to 123 million tonnes, down from its previous projection of 127 million tonnes. It said the country’s wheat output, which has been hampered by dry weather, is expected to shrink to 75 million tonnes, down from 85 million a year ago.

In recent years, Russia has been the world’s leading wheat exporter, but the latest US Department of Agriculture’s Foreign Agricultural Service projections have the European Union as the No. 1 exporter in the 2021-22 marketing year at 36.5 million tonnes, 500,000 tonnes more than Russia.