MOSCOW, October 30. /TASS/. Export of Russian wheat to Qatar in January-October 2024 reached record 145,500 tons, which is 41% higher than in the whole 2023, Ruslan Khasanov, head of the Grain Quality Assessment Center (GQAC) Federal State Budgetary Institution, told TASS.
"Qatar has been stably purchasing Russian wheat for many years already, with the only exclusion of 2021, though later shipments recovered. In January-October 2024 Qatar purchased record 145,500 tons of wheat from Russia, which is 41% higher than in the whole last year (102,900 tons in 2023). The average annual growth rate of export of Russian wheat to Qatar over the past 10 years stands at 6.1%," he said.
On the Qatari grain market Russia competes with such countries as Romania and Australia, each of which supplied 63,000 tons of this crop in 2023, the expert noted.
Wheat is not the only crop delivered by Russia to Qatar, he added. In particular, supplies of Russian barley to Qatar have continued since 2017. This year Russia has delivered 35,600 tons of barley to the country, which, same as in the case of wheat, exceeds the level of FY 2023 supplies.
"However, the export of this crop has been declining in recent seven years. Particularly, the average annual contraction of the volume of Russian barley supplies to Qatar totals 11.4%. That said, the country’s demand for the crop is projected to increase to 450,000 tons by the 2024/2025 season. Consequently, we see an increase in barley demand and a concurrent decline of supply volumes from Russia. The supply of barley to Qatar is probably a potential growth area for Russian exporters, which is worth paying attention to," Khasanov stressed.