During an interview with Sputnik, Arkady Zlochevsky, President of the Russian Grain Union revealed that during the last fiscal year, Africa became an important market with a vast geography of sales for Russian agricultural products, particularly grain.
“It is enough to list such large countries that are buyers of Russian grain. As I have already said, Egypt, Algeria, Tunisia, and even Namibia and Botswana have joined this year and started buying, although their volumes are not very large yet. But traditionally, Mozambique, Tanzania, Kenya, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, and Sudan buy [from us]. Well, who else? Angola,” he stated.
Additionally, Oleg Ozerov, Ambassador-at-Large of the Russian Foreign Ministry, revealed in July that Russia had fulfilled the promises it made to Africa during the second Russia-Africa summit. These promises include supporting Africa with grain and fertilizers; grain went to Burkina Faso, Zimbabwe, the CAR, Mali, Somalia, and Eritrea.
Arkady Zlochevsky revealed that Russian agricultural exports are diversifying, shifting a heavy focus on wheat to other products. While still dwarfed by its wheat volumes, Russia took the lead in the global pea market, increasing supply of peas and lentils.
“We should maintain our leading position in the world wheat market and slowly win back and expand markets for niche crops, including grain legumes,” he highlighted.
Furthermore, through the BRICS group of nations, which has Egypt, Ethiopia and South Africa as members, Russia intends to develop a system for payments in national currencies, including the ruble, with numerous African nations shortly in a bid to ease trade settlements, Zlochevsky stated.
“But we are facing enormous problems with counterflows. Disproportionality and imbalance of mutual settlements. This is the main issue at the moment. Bilateral settlements cannot be large-scale due to an imbalance. And it is precisely within the BRICS framework that these bilateral imbalances could be leveled by a common balance within the BRICS framework. And this would serve a tremendously positive role in the establishment of such settlements,” he noted.
