Russian grain exports to Belarus soar in 2022 – Russia’s agriculture watchdog

December 29, BPN. Russia’s grain exports to Belarus soared by 72 percent in 2022, Russia’s agriculture watchdog Rosselkhoznadzor reported.

Exports to Kazakhstan grew by 55 percent; to Kyrgyzstan, by 64 percent; to Armenia, by 49 percent, it added.

The Russian customs service reported earlier that Russia supplied 190,000 tons of wheat to Belarus in 2021.

In late September, the Belarusian government temporarily banned exports of several crops, including wheat and rye. The ban applies even to exports to the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) countries.

In August, Alaksandr Łukašenka said that Russian President Vladimir Putin had promised to reserve and sell one million tons of grain to Belarus. He said, however, that Minsk expected to earn over $7 billion in revenue from agricultural and agro-industrial exports in 2022.

Belarus posted a 17.6-percent rise in crop prices since the start of 2022, according to the Eurasian Economic Commission. Increases in prices for buckwheat and rye (150 percent), rapeseed (43 percent), oats (39 percent), wheat (33 percent), and barley (27 percent) in Belarus exceeded the average rate of price growth in the EAEU.