Sergey Chebotareff, deputy director of the Novorossissk Grain Terminal, said in an interview in the port late on Thursday, the terminal loaded nearly 5.8 million tonnes last year out of Russia's record total exports of 28 million tons.
During the first three months of the crop year, the terminal is due to load 520,000 tons in July, rising to 650,000 tons in both August and September, he said.
The terminal is part of the Novorossiisk Commercial Sea Port Group, which operates Russia's largest commercial port.
Chebotareff said those volumes were all equal to or greater than the volumes loaded in the first months of the 2011/2012 year, when exports kicked off at a record pace to release pent up stocks at the end of a grain export ban imposed in August 2010, when Russia was hit by a catastrophic drought.
"We need to get off to a good start," Chebotareff said.
The blue and green Russian-made Kamaz lorries were lined up at the terminal under a hot sun to discharge grain from the new season's harvest. A dry cargo vessel was docked and taking on grain at the terminal's pier.
Chebotareff said intake of grain had resumed after a three-day halt which resulted from transport chaos following deadly floods which hit the region last weekend.
The rail siding at the terminal was empty, which is unusual at NGT. The North Caucasus Railway, part of the state railway operator, had just lifted a moratorium on freight traffic to give priority to passenger trains after the floods.
Rail traffic between Novorossiisk and the rest of Russia was essentially suspended for a day last week to repair a bridge just south of the affected town of Krymsk.
Extensive repairs to the bridge were visible and workers were still repairing the trackbed on Thursday morning.
Two people died in the port town out of a total 171 along the coast.
Neither the terminal nor the wheat stored in its elevators, capable of holding 120,000 tons, sustained damage in the floods.
"There was no commercial spoilage," he said.
He dismissed suggestions by traders made earlier in the week that the terminal had stopped intake of grain last Friday because its elevators, capable of holding up to 120,000 tons of grain, were full.
Destinations
Most of the grain loaded at the terminal is destined for Egypt, Turkey and other traditional clients of Russian grain exporters in the Middle East and North Africa.
Chebotareff said the terminal had loaded no significant volumes for delivery to Iran in the past season, even though traders said Russia sold several hundred thousand tons to the Islamic Republic as it stockpiled grain in anticipation of tightening international sanctions.
It shares a pier with a terminal operated by the state grain trader, United Grain Co., with technical capacity to export nearly as much as NGT. Another 2 million tons per year terminal operates in the northern part of the port.
Iranian officials have not been among the state importers who make regular visits to the terminal, he added.
He said a delegation from the General Authority for Supply Commodities, the state grain buyer for the world's biggest importer of wheat, Egypt, had visted the terminal recently and requested the terminal increase navigation depth at its pier to accomodate grain cargoes of up to 75,000 tons.
The largest vessels to dock routinely at Novorossiisk are Panamaxes which carry cargoes of around 50,000-60,000 tons. He said the terminal would need to expand the maximum draught by about half a meterto permit larger vessels to dock routinely and works could be carried out in the spring.
