But acute competition on the world grain, mainly wheat markets may cut the competitiveness of the Russian cereals in spring.
Russian grain exports rose in January to 1.55 million tons from 1.5 million in December, while wheat exports rose to 1.36 million tons from 1.29 million tonnes mainly because of shipments to Egypt.
Competition with Kazakh and French wheat on the Egyptian market pushed Russian prices there down to $170 per tonne or by some $22 per tonne from the end of December.
Low prices offered by exporters and a rise of railway fees from the start of the year have brought the process of signing new contracts for wheat from Siberia undamaged by bugs to a halt.
At the same time stocks of grain in southern regions located close to export terminals have been notably depleted.
Fears that Russia may start large scale exports from the government stocks are unlikely to materialise until the end of the current crop year in June.
An order on dedicating 5 billion roubles ($165.9 million) to subsidise exports has not yet been signed and their mechanism has not been agreed upon between various government institutions.
Currently besides 100,000 tonnes of wheat, which the government is shipping to Cuba as humanitarian aid, Russia may ship 50,000-60,000 tonnes of feed grain to Mongolia and some wheat flour to Nicaragua.
Russian barley exports may rise to 200,000-230,000 tonnes from 179,000 tonnes in January and 72,300 tonnes in February 2009 because of a decline of shipments from competitor Ukraine to Saudi Arabia.
Maize exports have practically stopped because of the 2009 crop decline to 3.94 million tonnes from 6.68 million in 2008. SovEcon believes that in spring Russia may decide to import maize from Ukraine. (Reuters)
