Russia Ban Wheat Export, No Effect on Mongolia

Russia’s ban on export wheat would not affect Mongolia’s domestic market supplies and food prices, agriculture analysts said.

Russia, one of the world’s largest wheat exporters from which Mongolia imports more than 100,000 tons of grain, banned export of wheat last week effective until end of this year in response to an expected shortage due to wildfires and serious droughts that have ravaged a large swath of central Russia this summer. More than one-fifth of Russia’s crop have been destroyed.

“As far as of today, crops situation of Mongolia has not reached to a worrying level,” said M.Ariunbold, an officer at the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Light Industry. Stockpiles of wheat and other grains in Mongolia are greater now than they were three or four years ago, he said. “Thanks to the government’s agricultural campaign, Mongolia will fully supply its domestic demand of wheat and other grains by 2011,” Ariunbold said. Mongolia has planted grain in more than 260,000 hectares of land. Wheat crop information on how much grain it would ultimately be able to harvest in the fall, the government is expected to announce it on August 15.