Russia wants to create a grain hub in Egypt

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Russia and Egypt could discuss creating a “grain and energy hub” in the North African country. Reuters reports.

Putin raised the idea during a meeting in the Kremlin with Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdellatti, saying there were “many interesting ideas” to discuss. Abdellatti said Egypt welcomed Russia’s initiatives.

In the open part of the meeting, the parties did not specify what exactly the creation of such a “hub” entails.

Egypt is playing an increasingly important role in trade in Russian products and could become a logistics and warehousing hub for supplies to Africa and the Middle East. Separately, the possibility of creating a grain hub in Oman is also being discussed at the business level.

Putin has also previously promoted the idea of ​​creating a “gas hub” in Turkey, but there has been no significant progress in this direction yet.

Egypt is the world’s largest wheat importer and a major buyer of Russian grain. Rusagrotrans estimates that the country has already purchased about 7.6 million tons of Russian grain this season, about the same level as last year.

Putin said he had instructed the Russian government to work with Egypt on food supplies, primarily grain, and added that Russia, thanks to last year’s good harvest, would have no problems with supplies.

Egypt is also a major importer of Russian gasoline and could feel the effects of Moscow’s decision to ban gasoline exports until the end of July to stabilize the domestic market.

Tags: grain, Russia, Egypt