MOSCOW, July 27 (RIA Novosti) - Russia will be forced to look for new markets for its grain this year amid declining demand in countries that are traditional buyers, the president of Russia's Grain Union said on Monday.
"A difficult season is expected. This is not linked with our level of competitiveness - objectively, consumption is declining in the countries for which Russia is a traditional grain supplier: Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Morocco and others. This prompts us to look for new markets," Arkady Zlochevsky said.
Zlochevsky declined to specify the possible amount of Russian grain exports this year.
'Exports depend on many factors. However, they will hardly exceed last year's level [22.4 million metric tons]. But in any case, we'll be able to sell 13 million metric tons - the amount that we have earlier secured in guaranteed sales on the world market," he said.
The expert said that most likely Russian exporters would be developing Southeast Asian markets to which the first batches of Russian grain, in particular to Japan and the Republic of Korea, were delivered in the previous marketing season.
"This is a very capacious market," Zlochevsky said, adding, however, that these efforts would be hindered by logistic problems.
Zlochevsky said that Russia's gross grain harvest was expected at 85-90 million metric tons this agricultural year despite drought in some grain-producing regions of Russia. Last year, Russia harvested 108.1 million metric tons.
