Lithuania seeks to tighten checks on grain transiting from Russia and Belarus – Reuters

Lithuania will require Russian and Belarusian grain transported through the port of Klaipėda to be held until checks confirming its origin are completed, a process that could delay exports by several months, Reuters reports.

Source: Reuters, citing a representative of Lithuania's Ministry of Agriculture

Details: The Baltic country began inspecting grain shipments from Russia and Belarus in September, saying it suspected that some of the grain originated from Ukrainian territories occupied by Moscow.

From next week, wheat, barley, sunflower seeds and maize exported from Russia or Belarus through the Baltic Sea port of Klaipėda will not be cleared through customs until test results are available, Reuters reported.

"The tests can take two months or ​more," the Reuters source said, adding: "If the declared origin is found to be fraudulent, the shipment will have to be returned or destroyed."

Lithuania does not have a laboratory capable of carrying out the necessary tests, so they must be conducted abroad, which takes time.

Exporters will bear all costs associated with storing, testing, returning or destroying the grain, the Lithuanian official added.

Although European Union sanctions prohibit imports of Russian grain, transit through EU territory is still permitted.

Moscow has not commented on the legal status of grain harvested in territories internationally recognised as Ukrainian.

The report added that the Baltic states are seeking to halt the transit of Russian and Belarusian grain through their ports after Moscow increased its use of Baltic export routes in response to Ukrainian attacks on vessels and infrastructure at Black Sea ports.

Russian wheat exports are running at approximately half their usual volume despite efforts to find alternative export routes, said Matt Ammermann, a commodity risk manager at StoneX.

Previously: Latvia and Lithuania were considering halting the handling of Russian grain at their ports, as transit through the two countries had increased following Ukrainian drone attacks on Russian ports in the Baltic Sea.

Background:

• Russian exporters began redirecting grain shipments from the Black and Azov Seas to the Baltic Sea following Ukrainian attacks on Russian vessels and port infrastructure.
• Estonia introduced a ban on the transit of Russian and Belarusian grain through its territory in response to Russia's blockade of grain exports from Ukraine. The Security Service of Ukraine uncovered a scheme to launder Ukrainian grain worth over UAH 60 million (about US$1.4 million) that the Russians had illegally exported from temporarily occupied Mariupol. The heads of an Odesa-based company who helped sell the stolen grain were detained.

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