Miller Magazine Issue: 136 April 2021

86 MILLER / aprıl 2021 INTERVIEW ceeded in this direction, having been the world leader in wheat supply for several years. Russian exporters are large trade and logistics organizations integrated into the world market and successfully competing in it. They need a capable professional union that is able to defend their interests both within the country and abroad. Grain exporters already had the bad experience of organizing a union in 2011 called the National Association of Agricul- tural Exporters (NAESP). However, due to the already described phenomenon, the old leadership of the Association stopped respond- ing to the requests of its members, but actively held on to power. Under these conditions, grain exporters pre- ferred to create a new Union and not go into conflict with the leadership of the old one. There is nothing unique about this solution; exporters prefer to focus on business rather than intrigue. In addition, the process of creating new industry organizations was actively supported by the Ministry of Agriculture of Russia, which was led by a team of young pragmatists in 2018. In particular, the Min- istry of Agriculture supported the creation of our Union, since it was critically important for it to have constructive relations with the grain industry, the flagship of Russian agriculture. Today our Union unites 25 mem- ber companies exporting more than 70% of grain from Russia. We con- sider the number of our members to be close to optimal and do not plan to actively expand further. What are the mission and objec- tives of your association? Could you tell us about your activities as an association in the grain indus- try? The RUSGRAIN UNION mission is to promote Russia's sustainable leadership in the world grain mar- ket. We achieve this by develop- ing a constructive dialogue with Russian authorities, international organizations and importing coun- tries. RUSGRAIN UNION is a full member of the International Grain Trade Coalition (IGTC), where it represents the Russian business community. It is extremely import- ant for us to introduce modern business practices and technologies into the Russian business environment. At the moment, we are negotiat- ing to participate in a number of international projects aimed at the digital transformation of the international grain trade. By the way, the high level of digitalization of agriculture is one of the factors of Russia's high compet- itiveness in the world grain market. I am sure we have something to discuss and share with colleagues from other countries. As for the Russian domestic market, we are participat- ing in the emergence of the grain exchange market. In a strange way, being the world leader in grain exports, Russia still does not have its own grain exchange. I can only explain this paradox by the incapacity of old orga- nizations, which lacked the motivation to successfully implement this project. Indeed, why make an effort if it does not affect the size of their rent from the industry? I can understand this, but I will never support this ap- proach.