OREANDA-NEWS Problems with grain export through the Azov-Black Sea basin remain the main challenge for Russian agricultural exporters. This is reported by Kommersant with reference to the November report of the US Department of Agriculture (USDA).

The key reason for the difficulties in shipping agricultural products along this route, the U.S. Department of Defense said, is the increased attacks by Ukrainian drones on bulk carriers. The transfer of part of the supplies to the Baltic region will not be able to fully compensate for the lost volumes, according to the USDA.

Against this background, the ministry's staff lowered their forecast for exports of the main types of Russian grain. In the 2026-27 season, they expect shipments of domestic wheat to decrease by 2.5 percent, corn by 12.5 percent, and barley by 12.5 percent.

Transferring part of grain supplies to the Baltic Sea will make logistics more expensive, said Albina Koryagina, a partner at Neo. Coupled with falling export prices and accumulated unsold stocks, this will hit business profitability. Experts agreed that it would be extremely difficult for representatives of the agricultural sector to overcome the crisis without additional state support.