MOSCOW: Export prices for Russian declined slightly last week, prior to Russia’s decision to suspend participation in the grain deal, amid high export pace, analysts said.

Russia has suspended its participation in the Black Sea grain export deal, the Kremlin said on Monday. It had been extended several times, but was due to expire today. Russia had been saying for months that conditions for its extension had not been fulfilled.

According to the IKAR agriculture consultancy, the price of 12.5% protein Russian wheat scheduled for free-on-board (FOB) delivery in August was $228 a tonne at the end of last week, down from $231 a tonne the week before.

The Russia-focused agricultural consultancy Sovecon estimates for total Russian wheat exports in July at 4.2 million tonnes, compared to 2.5 million tonnes in June 2022 and 2.8 million tonnes on average.

Russia exported 960,000 tonnes of grain last week compared to 940,000 tonnes a week earlier, including 780,000 tonnes of wheat compared to 750,000 tonnes a week earlier, Sovecon wrote in its weekly note, citing port data.

The harvest is lagging amid persistent rains, Sovecon noted. Wheat harvest totalled 7.3 million tonnes (12.6 million tonnes year before) from 1.9 million hectares (3.0 million hectares). This accounts for 6% of the total area, the lowest number since 2016.