The trading company "Rif", also known as "Rodnye Polya", has received a phytosanitary certificate for an additional vessel after a long downtime in the port. This was announced by a representative of the company in an interview with "Vedomosti Yug". The vessel shipped 63,000 tons of wheat to Egypt in accordance with tender contracts concluded with the state company GASC.
Company employees noted that the Egyptian commission issued permission for the delivery on April 16, the grain quality assessment was conducted by the Grain Quality Assessment Center (GQAC) until April 30, and the phytosanitary certificate was issued on May 2. Currently, the grain trader is awaiting permission for two more vessels located in the ports of Novorossiysk and Tuapse. The analysis of the contents of these vessels has been ongoing since April 22 and April 20, respectively.
Company representatives stated that the standard time for analysis does not exceed two days.
A grain trader representative mentioned that starting from March 18, the practice of conducting prolonged inspections was introduced. For example, the vessel Prince Hadi, which was dispatched to Syria, underwent a 19-day inspection. As a result of the inspections, no quarantine objects were found, and the phytosanitary certificate was obtained on April 28.
In early April, the organization "Rif" filed a lawsuit in the arbitration court of the Rostov region demanding to recover $60,000 from the Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance, the Southern Interregional Administration of the Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance, and the Federal Center for Grain Quality and Safety Assessment. The claim has been accepted for consideration, and the information about it has been published in the court's database.
According to RBC Rostov, by the end of April, nine vessels of the trading company "Rif" with a total volume of 440,000 tons had not received responses regarding phytosanitary certificates. Since the start of inspections on March 18 of this year, the Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance has blocked 17 vessels of this exporter.
Representatives of the Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance explained that laboratory research had revealed several quarantine organisms in batches of wheat from the company "Rif", including Avena fatua, Cirsium arvense, Puccinia spp., and smut diseases. They also noted that smut diseases have quarantine significance for the EAEU countries, including Russia, as well as for more than 30 countries that are buyers of Russian wheat.
At the same time, employees of the company "Rif" pointed out that in the port of Novorossiysk, a unified entrance control is carried out for all exporters upon acceptance in the laboratory. The goods are stored in common containers without the possibility of differentiation based on the quarantine phytosanitary condition depending on the loading vessel.
As reported by RBC, the largest grain exporters in the south received more than 30% of the quota set by the Ministry of Agriculture of the Russian Federation until June 30, 2024. The highest quota volume was allocated to exporters from the Rostov region. TD "Rif" received 3.971 million tons, "Aston" - 2.139 million tons, the subsidiary company "OZK Trading", owned by the United Grain Company - 985,749 tons. They were followed by OOO "Agro Commodities" from Kuban - 493,068 tons, OOO "Zerno-Trade" from Don - 385,466 tons, OOO "Pallada" - 396,410 tons, and "Petrokhleb-Kuban" - 313,711 tons.
According to "Spark-Interfax" data, TD "Rif" was registered in 2010 in Rostov-on-Don. The main type of activity is wholesale trade in grain. The director of the company is Marina Turyanskaya. In 2023, the exporter's revenue amounted to 299.5 billion rubles, and net profit was 23.8 billion rubles.
TD "Rif" took the second place in the rating of the largest Russian grain exporters in 2023, with a total supply volume of 12 million tons. From January to March 2024, the company has already exported another 3 million tons of wheat to 17 countries, including Egypt, Turkey, Bangladesh, and Syria.
