Vietnam to suspend Russian wheat imports
Vietnam is suspending its imports of Russian wheat. Rosselkhoznadzor, Russia’s federal veterinary and phytosanitary supervisory authority, has received a letter from Vietnam containing a request to stop issuing phytosanitary certificates to suppliers of wheat to Vietnam, said department’s spokesperson Yulia Melano as reported by finanz.ru.
Russia is the world’s largest wheat exporter, and Vietnam is a major buyer, although it cut back on its purchases a year ago, when it began to combat wheat imports containing thistle seeds.
“Rosselkhoznadzor received an official letter from Vietnam requesting a temporary suspension of the issuance of phytosanitary certificates to wheat exporters,” Melano said. A vessel that is exporting wheat to other countries cannot leave the Russian port without such a certificate.
“Carrying out additional checks on product batches is a normal practice for importing countries,” she emphasized.
Following a similar notice a year ago, Vietnam did not buy Russian wheat between November 2018 and June 2019. It resumed its imports in July 2019, importing 229,000 tons over the course of two months.
The Russian supervisory authority will dispatch representatives to Vietnam from October 20-22 to attend the unloading of the Russian grain, after which they will attempt to negotiate a resumption of exports.
According to the results of the harvest campaign, Russia will harvest 75.4 million tons of wheat this year, the SovEcon analysis center predicts. The country will harvest a total of 120.3 million tons of cereals and legumes, 7 million tons more than last year.
Despite the large harvest, the price of wheat in Russian deepwater ports is rising and has reached $181-$187 per ton, the highest figure since the start of August.
“It seems like several traders will urgently need to get hold of more grain in order to fulfill their obligations. As usual, many producers sense the traders’ difficulties and halt all sales, waiting for higher prices,” observed Andrey Sizov, CEO of SovEcon.