The general trend of avoiding the dollar in settlements with importers Russia plans to spread to buyers of agricultural products.
De-dollarization in international settlements was not limited to the idea of the Russian Federation to sell gas for rubles to unfriendly countries.
This trend is also observed in trade with friends.
For example, as Deputy Prime Minister Victoria Abramchenko noted, the Central Bank of the Russian Federation is now negotiating with the Central Banks of other countries in order to implement such an initiative.
At the same time, Turkey is already actively buying grain for rubles, at the moment we are talking about expanding this practice to Egypt. After all, this country is the world’s largest importer of wheat. By the way, it is Russia that satisfies 70% of its need for this product, according to 2021 data.
Settlements in rubles is a goal for exporters
As President Vladimir Putin noted last spring, it is necessary to prepare the market for a significant part of the settlements to be carried out in rubles.
For this, in particular, it is necessary to ensure that any other currency can be easily and quickly exchanged for rubles.
In general, it is planned that by 2025 the share of settlements in rubles between the Russian Federation and foreign partners will double: from 19% to 40%.
Farmers are not going to stay away from this process. For example, the head of the Ministry of Agriculture of the Russian Federation, Dmitry Patrushev, said that the department is thinking about ensuring that all tenders for the purchase of grain in the countries of North Africa and the Middle East are carried out with payment in rubles.
If this goal can be achieved, then this will be a significant step towards the “rubleization” of international settlements with the participation of Russia.
After all, food exports are one of the significant income items of its budget, and the listed countries are the most important buyers.
How to put it into practice?
As Abramchenko noted, in the future it is planned to widely use not only Gazprombank, but also Rosselkhozbank for such transactions.
By the way, he has no risk of falling under sanctions, since one of the conditions for the grain deal with Ukraine is precisely to ensure that Rosselkhozbank can work without hindrance with foreign counterparties and return it to the international market.
In general, the current trend is to exclude the dollar as much as possible from the system of international settlements with the participation of Russia.
For example, it is planned to decouple contracts with friendly countries from the dollar, instead using other indicators.
For example, such a proven metal as gold. It is also possible to link contract prices to the cost of oil.
