UAE unlikely to be affected by Russia's wheat export ban

Russia's upcoming ban on wheat exports is unlikely to have any serious effect on the Unite Arab Emirates (UAE) as the Gulf nation imports the grain from various countries, the Foreign Trade Ministry said Saturday.

The UAE's sources for wheat imports include Canada, Germany, Australia and Argentina, which combinedly provide 89 percent of the country's wheat requirements, state news agency WAM reported, citing a report released by the Department of Analysis and Business Information at the Ministry.

Wheat imports from Russia constitute only 2 percent of the UAE' s total imports, said the report, prepared by economist Abdel Hamid Radwan, who monitored wheat imports to the country between 2005 and 2009.

It showed that the UAE imported about 856,000 tons of wheat last year at a total cost of 232 million U.S. dollars.

The value of wheat imports witnessed a 22 percent drop in 2009 while the amount of import increased by 10 percent in 2008, according to the report.

Last Thursday, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin announced that Russia, the third biggest wheat exporter in the world, would ban grain exports from Aug. 15 to Dec. 31 due to hot weather and severe drought, driving the benchmark wheat futures to a 23-month high in global markets.
(Source:xinhua)