According to the Ministry of Agriculture, in 2023, flour exports increased by almost a third, and in January-October 2023 it exceeded the values achieved for the entire 2022.
In general, over the 10 months of this year, the export figure amounted to about 990 thousand tons, if we sum up the export figures for rye and wheat flour.
Flour exports, according to some experts, will continue to develop for a number of reasons.
One of them is the high export duty on grain, which makes its export insufficiently profitable.
At the same time, duties do not apply to flour at all — at least for now.
For importing countries, buying flour instead of grain also has a number of advantages.
For example, the fact that processing grain into flour on the territory of the Russian Federation, as a rule, costs less than on their own territory, if only because energy resources are cheap in Russia.
For the Russian economy, supplying flour instead of grain is also beneficial, since it allows flour mills to be loaded with work, as well as increasing the added value of the product.
Which countries buy Russian flour today?
Iraq, which increased purchase volumes by 17%, to 150 thousand tons, rose to first place this year.
In second place is Georgia, its import of Russian flour is at the level of 120 thousand tons.
In third place is China, supplies there increased 3.7 times, to 100 thousand tons.
At the same time, the Chinese flour market turned out to be one of the fastest growing for Russia, as well as for many other items.
For example, in 2022, the Russian Federation supplied only 37 thousand tons of flour to China, and in 2021 – even less, 13 thousand tons.
In addition, this year, after a break, supplies of Russian flour to Hong Kong also resumed.
Among other things, neighboring countries are actively purchasing flour from Russia.
What plans exist to develop flour exports?
Russian producers are currently thinking about increasing its supplies to several more countries and thereby further diversifying exports.
For example, the possibility of supplies to Thailand, Yemen and countries of the African continent is being considered.
Moreover, many of these countries are large importers today.
On the one hand, these are great prospects for export, on the other hand, there is inevitable competition with other suppliers.
However, in general, it is planned that in the foreseeable future Russia will be able to increase its annual flour exports by an average of 500 thousand tons, which will be a significant step in the development of this industry.
