Glencore Plc No Longer Russia’s Largest Grain Exporter

Russia’s OOO Trading House RIF has surpasses Glencore Plc to become the country’s largest grain exporter, marking the first time a domestic company held the top ranking.

For the season ending June 30, RIF shipped 2.55 million tons of grain, according to data based on government figures from market researcher OOO ProZerno, while Glencore shipped 2.54 million tons, followed by Cargill Inc. and then Olam.

Despite the Russian government restricting wheat exports from February to mid-May as a means of lowering the cost of bread and helping the domestic industry, the country still shipped the most grain on record last season after Russian farmers harvested its second-largest post-Soviet grain crop of 105.3 million tons.

RIF’s exports picked up after the company began using two deep-water ports in Novorossiysk on the Back Sea in March, allowing for an additional 100,000 to 200,000 tons to be exported each month. And during the 2013/14 season, RIF exported 1.95 million tons of grain after its terminal on the Don River tripled its capacity.