MOSCOW: Russian wheat export prices fell for the second consecutive week last week after the Russian origin lost a major tender in Egypt and due to lower prices in Chicago, analysts said on Monday.

Egypt, the second largest buyer of Russian wheat after Turkey, bought 360,000 tonnes of Romanian wheat last week. Russia imposed high wheat export tax from March 1, and the pace of its exports is down sharply.

Russian wheat with 12.5% protein loading from Black Sea ports for supply in March was at $280 a tonne free on board (FOB) at the end of last week, down $5 from the previous week, agriculture consultancy IKAR said.

Sovecon, another consultancy, said wheat prices fell by $2 to $283, while barley rose by $2 to $254.

The pace of barley and corn exports was up since the start of March ahead of an export tax for them, which Moscow launched on Monday.

Sovecon believes the recent cold weather in part of Russia’s Volga and the Black Earth regions has had a damaging effect on the winter grain sowings. It plans to update its estimate for Russia’s 2021 grain crop within a few days.