IKAR in Mass and Industry Media

Vietnam clears way for more Russian wheat imports - Russia's food security agency

Reuters

Aug 22 (Reuters) - Vietnam has removed a key obstacle to Russian wheat exports by updating its quarantine list of plant origin items, Russia's food security agency Rosselkhoznadzor said on Tuesday.

The Vietnamese agriculture ministry's plant protection department has removed creeping thistle (Cirsium arvense), also known as field thistle, from the list, the agency said.

"This decision (removing the plant from the quarantine list) opens the gate for the return of Russian wheat to the Vietnamese market," the Russian Union of Grain Exporters said on its Telegram channel.

The creeping thistle is widely considered a weed, and many countries regulate it as a contaminant of imported products such as grains for consumption or seeds for propagation.

Vietnamese officials were not immediately available for comment on Tuesday.

"Taking into account the capacity of the Vietnamese market, which annually imports up to 4.7 million tons of wheat, the exclusion of the creeping thistle from the list of quarantine objects for Vietnam will allow Russian grain exporters to fully realise their export potential, significantly increasing wheat supplies to the Vietnamese market," Rosselkhoznadzor later said in a statement.

The restriction has proven a significant deterrent to Russian grain exports to Vietnam.

According to agriculture consultancy IKAR, Russian wheat shipments to Vietnam peaked in the 2017/18 season at 2.260 million metric tons. In the past 2022/23 season, the shipments stood at 70,000 tons.

22.08.23

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