Russian pea producers calls for China talks amid fears of lost EU exports
Pea producers in some Russian regions face losing large export markets due to anti-Russian sanctions and have asked the government to intensify negotiations with China in a bid to open its market to Russian peas.
Russia has typically exported its pea production towards the European Union, but both Ukraine and Russia have been in talks with China to improve exports to the Asian superpower.
"There have been a lot of talks about China in recent years," one trade source told Agricensus.
"I think that China will definitely not allow anything, because China actually supports US and European sanctions against Russia... I don't think that import relief will fit into the current policy," the trade source said.
China has not publically condemned Russia's invasion, abstaining when the UN passed its resolution ES-11/1 on Aggression against Ukraine, but has called for a peaceful resolution to the conflict.
The appeal stems from the Siberian Grain Consortium Association, according to multiple sources with the problem needing to be solved in the near future since significant planted areas are planned for pea crops in the 2022/23 marketing year.
The association reported that before the introduction of sanctions targetting Russian entities agricultural producers in Siberia exported peas mainly to the Baltic countries, which are currently classified as unfriendly.
According to the Federal Customs Service, in 2021, over 151,000 mt of peas were exported from the Siberian Federal District, of which more than 100,000 mt (73%) went to Latvia and Lithuania.
Russian dry pea exports in the current season have set records.
From July 2021 to January 2022, inclusive, it amounted to around 900,000 mt, 80% more than in the same period last year.
Bangladesh was marked as the destination for 216,877 mt (23%), Turkey for 198,310 mt (21%), Italy 96,285 mt (10%), Latvia 90,198 mt (10%), Pakistan 78,327 mt (8%), Spain 57,991 mt (6%), Belgium 47,155 mt (5%).
At the same time, in total, EU countries account for 35% of share.
Producers believe that it is necessary to reorient supplies to other countries, primarily to China, which is a large and promising market for peas.
"After Europe comes Pakistan, but they don't want to buy Russian goods en masse and traders from Canada, the US, Singapore and Dubai have problems paying for Russian documents," the source said.
However, the Chinese market is still closed to Russian pea suppliers.
In early February, before the Russian invasion of Ukraine began, Russian and Chinese government agencies held talks on compliance with inspection and quarantine requirements for the supply of Russian peas to the Chinese market.