Russia sees no need for grain export tariffs

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich said on Wednesday that Russia had no grounds to ban grain exports but did not rule out protective export tariffs after the end of the 2012 calendar year. Dvorkovich said Russia's new crop and stocks would provide enough grain to cover domestic requirements. He also reiterated the government's forecasts of 75-80 million tonnes of grain, with an exportable surplus of 10-12 million tonnes.
"There are no grounds to ban exports. Tariffs are always possible for any commodity. In this calendar year I do not see any scenario under which this could happen. Could it happen next year? I don't know," Dvorkovich told reporters after a closed door meeting of the government's food security commission.
The news helped ease concerns about a further shrinking of global wheat exportable stocks, a bearish factor for wheat futures prices that already were pressured by profit-taking after strong gains in June and July on US and Black Sea drought. Traders said Russia's imminent accession to the WTO meant it was unlikely to slap an abrupt ban on exports as it did after 2010's catastrophic drought, the worst in decades.
"They are about to join the World Trade Organisation so they are not going to take anti-liberal measures," a French futures broker said of Russia's grain export policy. "Reading between the lines, they are telling us that when they will have reached their export target they'll be out of the market."
Dvorkovich's opinion echoes comments from the heads of the Black Sea region's national grain lobbies, who said on Wednesday that Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan do not need any limits on grain exports this year to ensure that domestic markets are well supplied, despite weak harvest prospects.
Wheat production from Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan, the Black Sea region, which normally supplies around a quarter of world wheat export volumes, will drop 30 percent from last year because of a drought, a Reuters poll found, fanning fears of a global food price scare.
The World Bank said in July it was ready to help governments respond to a broad run-up in grain prices, which has put the world's poorest people at risk and could have a lingering detrimental impact for years. Once Russia's exportable surplus is exhausted, Dvorkovich said, the government would base its actions on market conditions.