Russia, the world’s leading wheat exporter, is significantly expanding its Baltic Sea ports as part of a strategy to increase agricultural exports by 50% by 2030. This move aims to reduce reliance on traditional Black Sea routes, which have become risky due to ongoing conflicts with Ukraine.
In the 2023/24 season, Russia exported at least 72 million metric tons of grain and is now targeting new markets in Latin America and Africa to diversify from its established markets in North Africa and the Middle East. The conflict has made shipping through the Black Sea hazardous, prompting the need for alternative routes.
Ksenia Bolomatova, deputy head of the state-controlled agricultural conglomerate OZK, highlighted that last year’s record harvest underscored the inadequacy of current port capacities for export loads. To address this, Russia has launched two major ports in the Gulf of Finland—Vysotsky and Lugaport. Vysotsky began shipping grain in April 2023, while Lugaport commenced operations in June 2023, with a projected capacity of 7 million tons by early 2025.
Dmitry Rylko from the IKAR agricultural consultancy noted that these two ports could handle up to 15 million tons of agricultural exports annually, which would represent a quarter of Russia’s forecasted 60 million tons of grain exports for the 2024/25 season. Additionally, a private firm, Primorsky UPK, is planning to establish a grain terminal at Primorsky port with a capacity of up to 5 million tons.