Russian AgMin may consider resuming rice exports after harvest - deputy minister

MINERALNYE VODY. May 26 (Interfax) - The Russian Agriculture Ministry is looking into the prospects for resuming rice exports, and could consider this issue after the harvest.

"We are looking at it, and if we are certain we'll produce enough to cover domestic needs, then we would of course consider supplying the surplus to foreign markets," Deputy Agriculture Minister Andrei Razin told reporters on the sidelines of the Caucasus Investment Forum on Monday.

Roman Nekrasov, head of the ministry's Crop Department, said at the forum earlier that exports could resume when the harvest reaches 2 million tonnes. This milestone is not that far away, he said.

Rosstat said the rice harvest was a record 1.259 million tonnes in 2024, compared to 1.073 million tonnes a year earlier.

As reported, the Russian government banned rice exports on July 1, 2022, owing to an accident at the Fyodorovsky dam in the Krasnodar Territory, Russia's primary rice-producing region, which occurred in April, resulting a reduction in the rice harvest to 920,100 tonnes in 2022. The ban's goal is to provide the domestic market with rice cereals. The ban was initially in force until December 31, 2022, and it has been extended every six months. It is currently in force until June 30, 2025.

Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak's office in April said that the subcommittee on customs-tariff and non-tariff regulation and protective measures in foreign trade supported the Agriculture Ministry's initiative to extend the ban on exporting unhusked rice/raw rice from July 1, 2025, until the end of the year. There is also a proposal to implement a tariff quota on exporting husked rice and rice groats outside the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) totaling 50,000 tonnes for the same period. It is proposed to set the internal quota rate on the export customs duty at 0% and the external quota rate at 50%.

The Economic Development Ministry's press service has additionally reported that work has simultaneously begun on the matter to retain the possibility to export processed rice in 2026 and subsequent periods.

The Agriculture Ministry expects the Fyodorovsky hydroelectric complex to relaunch operations after reconstruction by 2027.