Vietnam expressed interest in resuming supplies of Russian wheat

On July 14, 2023, Deputy Head of Rosselkhoznadzor Anton Karmazin met with Deputy General Director of the Plant Protection Department of the Ministry of Agriculture and Agrarian Development of Vietnam, Ms. Nguyen Thi Thu Huong. The Vietnamese delegation paid a visit to Russia to get acquainted with the system of phytosanitary control, as well as control over the safety and quality of grain.

In recent years, the export of Russian wheat to Vietnam has been hampered by the phytosanitary requirements of the Vietnamese side for imported grain. The main reason is the zero tolerance of Vietnam to the content in the wheat of thistle field - a weed that occurs on the territory of Russia, but is a quarantine organism for Vietnam.

In this regard, grain producers and exporters are forced to repeatedly clean the grain from the field weed, which leads to significant financial and time costs, while none of the existing modern cleaning systems can guarantee a 100% degree of cleaning.

In this regard, the majority of Russian exporters were forced to reorient the geography of their deliveries to countries for which the wild thistle is not a quarantine object.

Anton Karmazin informed the Vietnamese colleagues about the geography of Russian grain exports and the volume of shipments to the world market.

During the talks, the parties expressed mutual interest in resuming supplies of Russian wheat.

The Russian side proposed to the Vietnamese colleagues to consider the option of importing grain with single specimens of the wild thistle, as well as to determine the list of Vietnamese grain processing enterprises that have technologies for depriving quarantine objects of viability, which can act as recipients of grain from Russia. The Vietnamese side expressed its readiness to consider these proposals.

In addition, the Vietnamese side proposed a variant of the supply of Russian wheat, in which it is possible to clean up the wild goose after the vessel arrives at the ports of Vietnam, but this procedure will also lead to additional costs for Russian exporters.

The Vietnamese side reported that importers are interested in purchasing alfalfa and fresh cherries from Russia. The representative of the Rosselkhoznadzor noted the positive experience of working with China in terms of alfalfa exports and expressed his readiness to work on harmonizing phytosanitary requirements for further opening deliveries. The start of deliveries of Russian cherries to the Vietnamese market is possible after the Vietnamese side provides phytosanitary requirements.

Additionally, the parties agreed to cooperate in the safe use of pesticides and agrochemicals. The Russian draft Memorandum of Understanding between the Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance of the Russian Federation and the Ministry of Agriculture and Agrarian Development on the safe use of pesticides and agrochemicals is already under consideration by the competent department of Vietnam.

In conclusion, the parties thanked each other for the fruitful joint work during the visit of the delegation of the Ministry of Agriculture and Agrarian Development of Vietnam to Russia, and also expressed their hope for expanding the range and volume of mutual supplies of agricultural products.