Russia and China Sign Largest Grain Supply Contract

The contract is worth approximately $25.7 billion, as stated by Karen Hovsepyan, the head of the “New Land Grain Corridor” initiative.

BEIJING, October 17. /TASS Corr. Artem Prytkov/. Russia and China signed a grain contract valued at around $25.7 billion. Karen Hovsepyan, who leads the “New Land Grain Corridor” initiative, disclosed this information to TASS during a business forum in Beijing before the Third International Forum “One Belt, One Road” started.

“Today we signed one of the largest contracts in the history of Russia and China for almost 2.5 trillion rubles ($25.7 billion—TASS note) for 70 million tons for 12 years of grain, grain legumes, oilseed cargo supplies,” Karen Hovsepyan shared.

He pointed out that the said initiative would help normalize the export structure under the “Belt and Road” project. “The situation is that we are quite definitely more than replacing the lost volumes of Ukrainian exports at the expense of Siberia and the Far East,” Hovsepyan emphasized.

He also announced the imminent launch of a land grain initiative. “In the last days of November—early December, an interstate agreement on the “New Land Grain Corridor” will be signed at the meeting of the heads of government of Russia and China,” he pointed out.

In his words, the “Zabaikalsk grain terminal” will allow the new initiative to increase the export of Russian grain to China up to 8 million tons, which is planned to reach 16 million tons in the future due to the new infrastructure development.

A business forum ahead of the third international forum on China’s “One Belt, One Road” initiative was held in Beijing on Tuesday. The event was attended by heads of trade, investment, construction and transport companies of the countries participating in the initiative, as well as employees of financial organizations.