Astarta Agrotrading to start exporting chick peas to Pakistan by barter within two weeks

SARATOV/MOSCOW. Oct 4 (Interfax) - Astarta Agrotrading, one of Russia's largest traders of agricultural commodities, plans to start exporting chick peas to Pakistan in the next two weeks under a barter arrangement.

The Saratov-based company has plans to expand this type of trade so it intends to set up a customs warehouse in Saratov Region for this purpose.

"Two agreements have been signed. We're exchanging chick peas for rice with one company and we're exchanging chick peas for mandarins with a second," Astarta Agrotrading beneficiary Stanislav Neveinitsyn told Interfax. The company plans to start "in the next two weeks," he said.

The agreements were signed with Meskay & Femtee Trading Company and National Fruit Processing Factory at the beginning of October at the first Pakistan-Russia trade and investment forum in Moscow. The chick peas for rice deal will total 20,000 tonnes each.

The size of the mandarin shipment is still unclear "because we're going to try their mandarins for taste in the literal sense of the word," Neveinitsyn said.

"The first chick pea shipment will be a trial, because we need to understand the saleability of their rice, which we will get in exchange. The mandarin contract will be carried out from December through May," he said. Shipments will be arranged by truck, but all the issues concerning deliveries still need to be worked out with the customs authorities and Russian plant and animal health watchdog Rosselkhoznadzor.

The partner in the rice deal is Pakistan's second largest rice grower and processor, while the partner in the mandarin deal is "number one in fruit," Neveinitsyn said.

"There is strong demand for legume crops in Pakistan, so we need to get Saratov farmers to grow them more, and we'll be able to organize guaranteed sales," he said.

He also said his company plans to set up its own 76,000-square-meter customs warehouse in order to expand this type of trade.

"We want to do a complete complex. We have a hub in Engels where we plan to do the customs warehouse in order to provide all services, on the 'single window' principle. We load a vehicle with chick peas, clear for export and ship to Pakistan. The vehicle returns with rice. We unload it at the same customs warehouse, clear through customs and send the rice for sale. In such a way that the vehicles go back and forth like trams," Neveinitsyn said.

The company also plans to arrange such trade relations with other countries, such as Uzbekistan and Azerbaijan, he said.

"With Azerbaijan, negotiations have already been held on shipments of tomatoes and pomegranates. Azerbaijan is now deciding what it needs. I was in Azerbaijan last week, held negotiations. They took an interest," Neveinitsyn said.

Rosselkhoznadzor told Interfax that the most important thing in such trade from an oversight agency's standpoint is that the product imported from Pakistan must comply with phytosanitary standards and have a phytosanitary certificate confirming its safety. "In turn, the product shipped from the Russian side must also comply with Pakistan's phytosanitary requirements," the agency said.

Russia's Economic Development Ministry announced at the beginning of 2024 that it had developed a guide for barter trade for Russian businesses involved in foreign trade. It includes a description of the types of barter transactions and their advantages, reference material on laws and regulations governing barter in foreign trade, step-by-step instructions for arranging them, the procedure for determining equal value of the goods or services exchanged, and standard forms.

"In an environment of sanction restrictions, participants in foreign economic activities are actively entering new markets, including the markets of foreign countries whose national currency is not convertible or has high volatility. Foreign trade barter deals will make it possible to exchange goods and services with foreign companies without the need to make international transactions," Deputy Economic Development Minister Vladimir Ilyichev said at the time.