The Ministry of Agriculture proposed to extend the ban on rice exports until the end of 2023.

The Ministry of Agriculture of the Russian Federation proposes to extend the ban on the export of rice until December 31, 2023.

The draft of the relevant government decree is posted on the website for the preparation of regulatory legal acts, Interfax reports.

The document provides that from the date of its entry into force until December 31, 2023, there will be a temporary ban on the export of rice (code 1006 of the unified TN VED of the Eurasian Economic Union) and rice groats (code 1103 19 500 0 of the unified TN VED) from the Russian Federation.

The ban is currently in effect until June 30, 2023.

The corresponding government decree was signed on December 30, 2022. The restriction does not apply to deliveries to the EAEU countries,

The Russian Federation banned the export of rice on July 1, 2022. This restriction was valid until December 31, 2022, then it was extended. It was aimed at providing the domestic market with rice groats. Fears were caused by the April accident at the Fedorovsky retaining hydroelectric complex in the Krasnodar Territory (the main rice producer in the country), as a result of which rice production in the Russian Federation decreased to 797.6 thousand tons from 1.076 million tons in 2021. This is the first figure below 1 million tons in recent years. In 2020, 1 million 141.8 thousand tons were collected, in 2019 - 1 million 098.7 thousand tons.

Before the accident at the hydroelectric complex, the 2022 harvest was forecast at 1.1 million tons.