Lianyungang Port in Jiangsu province announced that it had received its first-ever shipment of bulk Russian corn from eastern Russia.
The importer, a feed producer, said that the prices from eastern Russia were about 30% cheaper than corn sourced from the US.
Volumes in this corn trade from eastern Russia remain small even as the government pushes for diversification of agricultural imports. The total shipment was 4,800 tons, which is not substantially higher than previous imports along this route.
In 2018, COFCO announced it had completed the first bulk corn shipment between Russia and China, loading 3,678 tons from Vladivostok in far eastern Russia.
China’s imports of Russian corn reached a high of 138k tons in 2020 but have since dipped, with imports at 89k tons in 2021 and 95k tons in 2022.