Russia increases wheat exports to West Africa 23% in 8M - Agroexport

MOSCOW. Oct 8 (Interfax) - Russia has recently increased exports of grains and pulses to African countries, including the western part of the continent where it has to compete with the world's leading grain producers, and experts believe there are prospects for expanding shipments.

"Over eight months of 2025, Russian companies increased supplies of wheat to West African countries 23% and peas 3.5-fold in value terms," the head of the Agroexport federal center, Ilya Ilyushin, said during the business program of the Golden Autumn 2025 international exhibition on Wednesday, as quoted by the center.

Last year, Russia shipped 1.7 million tonnes of wheat worth $383 million in this direction. Its main buyer in the region is Nigeria at 70% of total supplies. Shipments are also going to Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso, Gambia, Ghana and Sierra Leone.

According to data from the Rusagrotrans analytical center cited by Agroexport, Africa is a significant sales direction in global grain trade, especially for wheat. In recent years, the continent has been purchasing 60 million to 62 million tonnes of wheat, 21 million to 24 million tonnes of corn, and 3 million to 4 million tonnes of barley annually. This includes 15 West African countries, which, focusing on wheat, import around 10 million to 13 million tonnes per year (20% of Africa's total imports). In particular, Nigeria purchases from 5 million to 7 million tonnes annually on the world market, while Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana and Senegal together import around 1 million tonnes per year.

In the West African market, Russia competes with other exporters - the European Union, Canada and the U.S., analysts said. From the 2020-2021 to the 2022-2023 agricultural season, wheat exports from Russia in this direction fell from 2.5 million to 0.6 million tonnes. However, since the 2023-2024 season, exports have been recovering due to an active return to the Nigerian market, which, by the end of the 2024-2025 season imported over 1.5 million tonnes of wheat from Russia. In the first three months of the current season (July-September), almost 0.5 million tonnes were shipped from Russia to Nigeria, confirming the interest of one of the largest importers in Africa in Russian wheat, Rusagrotrans said.

Analysts believe it is important to develop supplies to neighboring West African countries, which have sufficient market capacity and are interested in high-quality and competitively priced wheat. Primarily, these are Ghana, Senegal and Cote d'Ivoire.