In the latest example, its shipments to Sudan have jumped 87
percent so far this season, turning the African country into the
seventh-largest customer for Russian wheat, Institute for Agricultural Market
Studies figures show.
Sudan imported no Russian wheat until 2014, when millers decided
the grain met their quality requirements, according to the country’s embassy in
Moscow.
Such shifts among consumers, along with a third straight bumper
crop and a weakened ruble, have allowed Russia to send wheat grown in the Black
Sea region to markets as far away as Indonesia. That’s cut into the market
shares of traditional suppliers including the U.S., the European Union and
Australia.
“Competitiveness of Black Sea origin is the main reason why
Russian wheat has displaced Aussie origin into Sudan,” said Tom Basnett,
general manager at commodity consultant Market Check in Sydney. “Australia has
exported nothing over the last few years into Sudan, and will no doubt do
nothing this year.”
Russia was Sudan’s biggest supplier in 2016-17, followed by the
EU, according to Market Check. Australia held the top spot as recently as
2012-13, shipping more than 800,000 metric tons, it said. Since this season
began in July through December, Sudan already bought 821,000 tons from Russia,
IKAR data show.
The African country is set to be the continent’s fifth-largest
importer of wheat this season, data compiled by the U.S. Department Agriculture
show. Some of the flour made from Sudan’s imported wheat is smuggled across the
border to landlocked African nations, according to its Moscow embassy.