Russia has asked the enlarged BRICS group to abandon the dollar in grain trade and conduct transactions in national currencies.
In particular, the influential Russian Union of Grain Exporters (Ruszernosoyuz) asked in a letter to the Ministry of Agriculture of the Russian Federation to abandon the dollar, and Moscow forwarded this letter directly to other BRICS members. The Union will create its own trading platform and will trade grain without using the dollar, neutralizing the dominance of the American currency
According to the Rusgrain association, the five BRICS countries will annually produce a total of 1.17 billion tons of grain (42% of world production) and consume 1.1 billion tons (40% of world consumption) by the end of 2023.
After the expansion of the group, grain production will reach 1.23 billion tons per year (44% of the world), and consumption will approach production, that is, 1.22 billion tons (also 44%).
“According to statistics, 25% of world trade in wheat comes from… Russia,” Vladimir Petrichenko, general director of the analytical company ProZerno, told Sputnik. “Similarly, more than 25% of trade in corn is Brazilian corn. Moreover, if we talk about soybeans, then about 58% of world trade is Brazilian soybeans.At the same time, China is the largest buyer of corn and wheat, and Egypt is the largest importer of wheat, although to a lesser extent, but they buy wheat the same as China – 12 million tons per year. Now they’ve added Saudi Arabia, a major buyer of barley. But the main commodities are wheat, corn and soybeans. And for all of them, especially with those who joined in January, it’s a huge market.”
BRICS member countries account for a huge part, and in some cases more than half, of the market for these agricultural products, the expert noted. “In a word, this fruit is ripe for the picking,” Petrichenko emphasized.
In a letter to the ministry, the president of the Rusgrain association, Eduard Zernin, claims that these events create the conditions for the creation of a “grain exchange” platform for BRICS member countries. He believes that Russia can play “the role of supplier of last resort,” which “may subsequently be joined by other net exporters.”
“We have serious conditions for creating our own platform for trading with settlements in any of the currencies of the BRICS countries, and in the future – in a special clearing currency in Russia or in one of the countries with a strong financial system and a freely convertible currency other than the dollar,” – says Zernin.
The BRICS group, which includes Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, will add Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to its ranks of net grain importers in 2024, which will practically equalize production and consumption grains in a group.
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