Sojitz Corp to import wheat from Russia for Asia market, Japan.

20/11 Tass 74

TOKYO, November 20 (Itar-Tass) - Japan's trade-investment Sojitz
Corporation in the short run will start the import of wheat from Russia
for the needs of the Asian market, including Japan, the leading Japanese
business newspaper Nikkei reported on Friday.

It says that the project has been worked out with taking into account
the growing food demand in Asia, and its practical implementation will be
launched in 2010. According to the newspaper, Sojitz has already signed
with the Russian Grain Union "an agreement on strategic partnership." At
the initial stage the corporation plans to develop supplies of Russian
grain to Southeast Asia countries and next year it will organise in
Singapore seminars on the issue with the participation of the leading food
enterprises of Indonesia, Thailand and a number of other states of the
region.
The creation of the needed infrastructure for grain deliveries,
including elevators, will be simultaneously started in the Russian Far
East with the participation of the Japanese side. The expected grain
export volume from Russia to Japan is about 1.5 million tonnes. Nikkei
specified that Sojitz Corporation has considerable experience of
operations on the world grain market and at present has the capacities for
the organisation of wheat supplies in the volume of 4 million tonnes
annually, it is planned to increase this potential to 5 million tonnes
annually by 2012.
The Kyodo news agency reported that Russia is planning large-scale
grain exports to Japan as the development of routes for grain exports to
Asia has become a key challenge for the country, according to Russian
sources familiar with the matter.
Japanese trading companies such as Sojitz Corp. and Itochu Corp. are
negotiating with Russian firms to construct a grain shipment facility with
an annual capacity of 1 million tonnes or more at a port in the Russian
Far East, they said, the agency reported. The companies are also
considering a Japan-Russia joint venture to develop farms in Siberia and
transport wheat and other farm products via railway to a Far East port for
exports to Japan and other destinations, the sources said.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev hosted the World Grain Forum in St.
Petersburg in June and emphasized the development of routes for grain
exports to Asia as a key challenge for Russia. Russia became a grain
exporter in 2001 after a sharp decline in grain production following the
collapse of the Soviet Union. Its grain exports have increased steadily
since then, exceeding 20 million tonnes in 2008, according to Kyodo.
It said Russian Grain Association President Arkady Zlochevsky said
Russia plans to boost annual grain exports to 50 million tonnes by 2020,
expanding sales channels to cover the whole of Asia. But the Russian Far
East region does not currently have a grain shipment facility, while
shipments from a facility in the Black Sea area have increased up to its
capacity as it handles nearly 90 percent of Russia's total grain exports.
Medvedev instructed his government in October to develop grain shipment
facilities in the Far East among other regions, the sources said.
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