Head of Russian grain union about exports to EU

Russia should insist on an annual 2m-ton quota for its grain exports to the European Union, Arkady Zlochevsky, the head of the Russian grain union, said in an interview with RosBusinessConsulting. He stressed that Russia was not satisfied with a 600,000-ton quota.

The head of the union also noted that the new rules for grain imports that came into effect in the EU on January 1, 2003 only influenced the customs tax, which was, however, quite satisfactory within the quota.

As reported earlier, Russia refused to accept the quota suggested by the EU totaling 600,000 tons of grain exports in 2003. At the same time, the EU has the right to introduce this quota even without Russia's approval. Nevertheless, Russian officials are planning to continue negotiations on this problem in the new future.