11:32 - 16.07.2025

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July 16, Fineko/abc.az. Azerbaijan has sharply reduced wheat imports from Russia, which has been the main supplier for many years, and replaced it with Kazakhstan.

AZ informs that in the first 5 months of 2025, Azerbaijan purchased 88% of 509,230 tons of imported soft wheat from Kazakhstan. The volume of those imports is 449,390 tons. The cost of wheat imports is $95.47 million. But last year, wheat was not imported from this country.

So far, Azerbaijan has received most of those products from Russia. After March 2025, imports from this country were practically stopped. The volume of wheat imported from Russia in the first 5 months of last year decreased from 328,540 tons to 59,840 tons for Jan-May 2025 (82% less than year-on-year).

The decline in wheat exports from Russia as a whole has affected not only Azerbaijan. In July 2025, Russian wheat exports are projected at 2-2. 5 million tons, which is a sharp drop from 3.67 million tons for July 2024 and the lowest level since 2008. The Russian government has taken urgent measures to agricultural exports amid declining wheat exports.

A Reuters report dated July 10 says that this situation was explained by the late start of the harvesting campaign due to the weather, low stocks and the strong influence of the ruble, which delayed farmers' sales. The strengthening of the ruble (Jan-Apr 2025) weakened export revenues and increased prices for Russian wheat in foreign markets. The Black Sea ports are already experiencing a shortage of wheat. Due to the delay in loading, some shippers have started charging additional fees to ships that are idle in ports.