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Russian minister: Grain export duty to be zeroed from September 23

MOSCOW, September 22. /TASS/. The export duty on grain will be zeroed on September 23, Agriculture Minister Alexander Tkachev said in an interview with the Rossiya 24 TV channel.

"Once again I would like to inform all the villagers, traders on the market that from tomorrow (September 23 - TASS) the export duty will be zeroed," he said. 

The wheat export duty is effective in Russia since summer 2015.

Since it was introduced the duty’s calculation formula changed several times. At present the export duty of wheat is 50% of its custom value minus 6,500 rubles, but not less than 10 rubles per tonne.

On September 2, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said that the Russian government had decided to zero export duty on wheat for two years.

Earlier Russian Ministry of Agriculture prepared a draft ruling suggesting to reduce the wheat export duty to zero from September 15, 2016 and until July 1, 2018.

In the agricultural year that ended on June 31, Russia exported abroad 33.9 million tonnes of grain. 

Russia’s Agriculture Ministry expects to increase the capacity of grain exports to 5 million tonnes in 2-3 years, Alexander Tkachev noted.

"Currently, infrastructure projects have been launched to build port facilities for shipping grain to the Asian market. I think that in 2-3 years, we see a serious advancement, capacities up to 5 mln tonnes," he said.

According to Tkachev, the expansion of facilities was prompted by the surplus of grain, which accumulated over the years.

"Five years ago we did not even dream of having such surplus of grain. I stress that this is not the volumes we are taking away from food or fodder reserves. This is our unclaimed grain within the country," the Minister said.

In the 2014/2015 agricultural year Russia exported about 30 million tonnes of grain, including 22 million tonnes of wheat.

In the 2015/2016 agricultural year Russia exported 33.9 million tonnes of grain. In the 2016/2017 agricultural year, this figure may reach 40 million tonnes, including 26-30 million tonnes of wheat.