Russia makes inroads into Southeast Asia with 700,000 ton Malaysia wheat deal

Australia has had a strong natural advantage into massive wheat markets in south-east Asia by dent of its freight advantage, however a deal struck between Russia and Malaysia last week highlighted how cheap Black Sea importers are looking to gain a foothold in the region. It was announced that the Russian Union of Grain Exporters had signed a deal with a Malaysian business to provide 600,000 to 700,000 tonnes of wheat. The deal is massive for Malaysia, which collectively imports generally imports around 1.5 to 1.8 million tonnes annually, with no local production. It follows the lead of Indonesia, which according to the US Department of Agriculture's Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) has increased imports from Russia ten-fold over the past two marketing years, from 168,000 tonnes to 1.6m tonnes in 2023-24. This is in spite of the average sea freight time from Russia's Black Sea ports, the engine room of the nation's grain export sector, of 45 days to Malaysia, compared to 12-22 ...