Türkiye sharply reduces imports of Russian wheat

In the past few months, Türkiye, previously considered the second key importer of Russian wheat, has sharply reduced purchases of the most important domestic agricultural crop. The head of the industry company ProZerno, Vladimir Petrichenko, spoke about this problem, as quoted by Interfax.

Now the Mediterranean country's share in the structure of Russian wheat exports is only 2 percent, he complained. The reason for this dynamics was problems with the export of agricultural crops through the Azov-Black Sea basin.

Against the backdrop of increasing attacks by the Ukrainian Armed Forces, a number of major transshipment facilities in the region were stopped. We are talking primarily about Novorossiysk, Petrichenko explained. “Türkiye now accounts for only 2 percent of Russian exports. This greatly worries not only our partners, but, first of all, us,” he stated.

Recently, Petrichenko noted, there have been dramatic changes in the list of key buyers of Russian grain. The leading importer in July-September was Iran, which purchased mainly corn and barley. As for wheat, the volumes of its shipments in this direction turned out to be small.

Taking into account serious problems with the sea export of this agricultural crop, he predicted, the total export of all types of Russian grain in the first quarter of the 2026/27 agricultural year could fall by 1.6 times.