MOSCOW: Russian wheat export prices edged up last week for the second consecutive week as the agriculture ministry released a draft of its plan to introduce a grain export quota, analysts said on Monday.

Russian wheat with 12.5% protein loading from Black Sea ports was at $254 a tonne free on board (FOB) at the end of last week, up $1 from the previous week, the IKAR and Sovecon agriculture consultancies said.

Barley rose by $1 to $215 a tonne, Sovecon added.

Russia’s agriculture ministry plans to set the grain export quota at 15 million tonnes for Feb. 15 to June 30, 2021, it said last week. Its draft proposal is yet to be approved by the government.

The quota is going to be distributed among exporters based on their share in July-December grain exports. It provides traders with a stimulus to export more until January to secure a bigger quota, but is overall neutral for the market, Sovecon said.

Russia has already exported 20.1 million tonnes of grain since the start of the 2020/21 marketing season on July 1.