Russia, one of the world's largest wheat exporters, will use only state purchases of grain from the domestic market if it needs to regulate its market, Agriculture Minister Nikolai Fyodorov said. A grain export ban, with which Russia shocked markets in 2010 when drought ravaged its harvest, is now seen as an "absolutely unacceptable" instrument for market regulation, Fyodorov said at a summit held at the Reuters office in Moscow. "Russia's reputation as a reliable trade partner is seen among two (other) values: maintaining market balance and ensuring price acceptability," the minister said. "That's why ... we will use civilised instruments of influence," Fyodorov said in his first major interview to foreign media since his appointment two years ago. Russia is harvesting its largest grain crop in six years and the second largest crop in its post-Soviet history, amid worsening relations with Western countries, which sanctioned it for the Kremlin's role in the Ukraine' crisis. To protect its economy, in early August Moscow reacted with a one-year ban on most food imports, worth about $9 billion, from the European Union, the United States, Canada, Australia and Norway, in its strongest response to sanctions so far. Fyodorov said in an interview at the Reuters Russia Investment Summit that the food ban was a forced measure after Western sanctions had been imposed on some of Russia's banks - key creditors of the agriculture sector. "It was an indirect hit on our agriculture development program, on how our credit organizations will return and prolongate 1.8 trillion roubles ($47 billion of debt from the sector)," the minister said. Russia imposed the ban on all meat, fish, dairy, fruit and vegetable imports, but the list of banned countries and products can be changed if tensions ease, he said. "In the president's order (about the food ban) it said that all this (list) can be reviewed ... depending on how trade and political relations with these countries develop," Fyodorov said. "We are ready to return to this decision review ... as soon as a signal comes from our partners who started this sanctioning activity." The ministry currently sees the 2014/15 grain crop at more than 100 million tons of grains, including at least 56 million tons of wheat, Fyodorov said. The country will have a 2014/15 exportable surplus of 27 million to 30 million tons of grains, of which wheat is likely to account for 70 percent, if the crop exceeds 100 million tons, he said. Russia had already harvested 92.4 million tons of grains before cleaning and exported 9.9 million tons of grains since the start of the 2014/15 marketing year on July 1. The ministry plans to start its interventions, purchases from the domestic market, on Sept. 30. In late August, the Agriculture Ministry said in a letter to Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev that export restrictions could be an option if exports exceeded 26.9 million tonnes of grain out of the expected crop of 100 million tons this year. However, officials said the government was not considering an export ban and the letter only included a list of options related to monitoring the grain market situation, not proposals. Fyodorov added that Russia, which is turning east after the Western sanctions, was considering two joint projects with China: to build a railway grain terminal and to build an agro-industrial complex. Discussions on both projects are at an early stage, the minister said. (Reuters)