It was peas that became the leguminous crop whose exports the Russian Federation increased the most over the previous season.
2023 has become a favorable period for Russian farmers who specialize in growing leguminous crops.
In particular, the harvest of such crops increased by 30% compared to 2022 and reached about 6 million tons. This data is provided by Rosstat.
At the same time, a significant share of grown legumes, more than half, is exported.
For example, over the 11 months of 2023, 3.2 million tons of such products were exported. This is 2.5 times more than in the same period of the previous year, which can be considered a very good result.
At the same time, not only shipment volumes are growing, but also revenue. The total value of Russian exports of pulses in 2023 also doubled compared to the previous year.
Peas have become a leader in the export of pulses
77% of the total export volume of such crops is occupied by peas, chickpeas are in second place — 15%, lentils are in third place with a value of 8%.
If we compare 2023 with the previous year 2022, pea exports increased 2.5 times to 2.5 million tons, while export revenue also increased comparablely: 1.9 times.
Who buys Russian peas?
In first place is China, which, by the way, opened its borders to Russian peas at the end of last year, which became one of the factors in the growth of export volumes in general.
Over 11 months, China bought over 900 thousand tons of peas.
In addition to China, there are other large buyers of Russian peas. For example, Spain.
It increased its purchases 27 times, to 600 thousand tons.
Turkey during the specified period of time bought 300 thousand tons, which is a decrease of 17%.
As for chickpeas, its supplies in January-November 2023 increased 2.3 times, to 500 thousand tons.
The largest buyers of this crop are Türkiye, Pakistan, Egypt. Supplies to all these countries have increased significantly: from 70% to 4.5 times.
Last year, about 300 thousand tons of lentils were exported, which is three times more compared to 2022.
Here in the list of the largest buyers we also see Turkey, and in addition, India and the UAE.
“Pulses have become a new significant category of Russian agricultural exports, and we expect that the export record of 2023 is only an intermediate result.
In many respects, success was achieved due to the opening of the large Chinese pea market, where we are already supplying full ship shipments, as well as the development of sales in a number of other areas.
Against the backdrop of growing demand from Asian countries, including the Middle East, the production of grain legumes is becoming increasingly attractive to Russian farmers,” notes Eduard Zernin, Chairman of the Board of the Union of Grain Exporters.
