Turkey says imports of Russian wheat could halt despite lack of ban

Turkey has not banned purchases of wheat and similar products from Russia but imports may halt as Turkish companies prefer to avoid buying from Moscow, the economy minister said on Tuesday. Turkish buyers have put purchases of Russian agricultural products - mainly wheat, maize and sunflower oil - on hold, despite denials from Ankara that it has effectively banned imports from Moscow, trade and industry sources said on Monday.
Turkish Economy Minister Nihat Zeybekci reiterated Ankara's denial, but said the annual $1.83 billion of agricultural imports from Moscow could fall to zero. He gave no specific reason why companies did not want to import from Russia. But despite what he called better political relations with Russia, "this improvement in political ties is not fully reflected yet in economic relations. Currently, the restrictions on visas and obstacles for contractors are fully in place."
Last week, import licences issued by the Turkish government no longer included Russia in a list of accepted tax-free origins, the sources said, suggesting an import tariff of 130 percent could be applied to supplies from Russia. Russia imposed trade restrictions on Turkish goods and other sanctions after Turkey shot down a Russian fighter jet near the Syrian border in November 2015.
The two countries restored ties in August and Moscow has lifted most restrictions, but it has yet to resume purchases of some vegetable products from Turkey. The Kremlin has said the agricultural import problems would not affect the normalisation of political ties. "The grain market is not limited to Turkey only, it is a quite broad ... global market. The closure of one of its segments means some amounts will be flowing to other segments, it is a normal economic process," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Tuesday.
Turkey is the second-largest importer of Russian wheat after Egypt and one of the biggest markets for Russian maize (corn) and sunflower oil. For Turkey's flour millers, Russian wheat is one of the most important sources of supply. "The situation is quite serious," Dmitry Rylko, head of Russia's IKAR agriculture consultancy, said after Zeybekci's comments.
Without the latest difficulties, Russia could sell an additional 1 million tonnes of wheat and 600,000 tonnes of maize to Turkey by the June 30 end of this marketing year, Andrey Sizov Jr, managing director of SovEcon consultancy, said. "This issue does not look like some sort of minor bureaucratic misunderstanding. People fear a serious problem that could disrupt trade for weeks or even months," a European grain trader said.