We are talking about the recommended price of wheat, below which the government does not advise farmers to sell their products.
Last autumn, the Ministry of Agriculture recommended that all Russian wheat producers refrain from selling it for less than $250 per ton.
In addition, at that time, the Union of Grain Exporters and Producers took a course on direct deliveries of products to exporting countries, without involving foreign intermediaries.
All these were measures aimed at stabilizing the revenue of Russian exporters.
However, now they had to face a new problem: grain prices on the world market have fallen significantly. In the current situation, the minimum price for wheat at $250 per ton is already becoming a difficult condition to fulfill.
Moreover, experts note that the fall in prices has also led to a significant decrease in export volumes.
In addition, the beginning of the new season is approaching, so almost all the stocks that farmers have at their disposal at the moment are coming to an end, and what’s more, they are usually already contracted at the same price of about $250 per ton.
Thus, the deliveries planned for May and June must be fulfilled, and the cancellation of the measure adopted by the Ministry of Agriculture should not have any effect on them.
Moreover, it is emphasized that the recommended price was unofficial, it was actually just advice to farmers, so no sanctions for selling products at a price below this level have been established.
At the same time, many experts also do not see the point in the fact that this measure was introduced at all.
The only effect that it actually had was to make things even more difficult for small exporters, of which there are already few on the Russian market, because it is largely monopolized.
In addition, since the measure was not mandatory, it was practically not observed, analysts emphasize. This can be easily verified by paying attention to the indicative prices used to calculate the export duty.
For example, in 2025, these prices were not less than $250 only as of May 7 and 16. It turns out that on all other days of the year, exporters sold wheat at a lower price than the government recommended.
In total, from last July to this April, Russia sent about 39 million tons of wheat abroad.
This is a very decent result, since there was more only last year and the year before: 55 million tons and 49 million tons, respectively.
