Russia promises lower grain exports

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Grain harvest near Krasnoyarsk, Russia (2015): Ministry of Agriculture speaks of "risks" in grain harvest

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© Ilya Naymushin / Reuters/ REUTERS

For some time, Russia has been reducing gas supplies arriving in Germany via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline.

Russia's rationale for this was the lack of a turbine serviced in Canada.

This is now stuck in Mülheim an der Ruhr and, according to the Gazprom group, cannot be transported further due to missing documents - obviously a trumped-up reason.

Now Russia is also holding out the prospect of curtailing its grain exports with a similar justification.

A statement from the Russian Ministry of Agriculture states that the country will probably not be able to achieve its targeted grain harvest.

Responsible for this is on the one hand the weather and on the other hand a lack of spare parts for the foreign equipment.

"Taken together, this poses risks to reaching the 130 million tonne harvest," the ministry said.

If the target is not reached, the export plans of 50 million tons would have to be reconsidered.

Getreideal with Ukraine is just starting

The announcement comes at a time when an impending global food crisis seemed to have been averted or at least alleviated: after the grain deal between Russia and Ukraine brokered with Turkish help, the first ships with grain have just set off.

This had been stuck in the country because of the Russian blockade of Ukrainian ports.

As a result of the Western sanctions, parts of the Russian economy have actually experienced significant component shortages.

The Russian aviation industry was hit hard, among other things, because Airbus and Boeing stopped delivering spare parts and companies like Lufthansa Technik suspended maintenance of the machines in Russia.

Sol/Reuters