Belarusian agricultural enterprises doubled grain purchases at exchange auctions

Last year, enterprises of the agro-industrial complex of Belarus purchased more than 437 thousand tons of grain at exchange auctions for a total amount of Br208 million. This is two times more than in 2022, in physical terms and 1.7 times in value terms, BelTA was told in press service of the Belarusian Universal Commodity Exchange.

The most popular items were feed and food wheat, corn and malting barley. Their share in the total amount of transactions with grain crops was 77%. Both Belarusian companies and suppliers from the Russian Federation acted as sellers on the exchange platform.

“The structure of transactions was dominated by Belarusian grain, and the share of imports from the Russian Federation was just over 40%. Grain traders from 8 regions of Russia regularly participated in the trading, while in 2022 there were half as many of them. For example, in Bryansk and Ryazan regions, Belarusian agricultural enterprises purchased feed wheat and malting barley, and in the Belgorod region and Krasnodar region - corn and food wheat. As a result, the volume of exchange sales of Russian grain increased 6 times - from 32.6 thousand tons to 194.4 thousand tons." , - said the BUTB press service.

It is noted that in 2023, negative price dynamics were observed at grain exchange trading, primarily due to the situation on the world market, where, against the backdrop of an increase in supply, competition between the largest exporting countries has increased significantly.

“In particular, the price of wheat by the end of the year decreased by 31% - to $133 per ton, and the price of feed corn stopped at $125 per ton, which is 34% less than in January 2023,” the press service noted.

Exchange trading in grain for the domestic market is held at BUCE twice a week. During trading sessions, wheat, rye, barley, corn, oats, triticale, millet, peas, lentils, as well as grain mixtures are sold.