Miller Magazine Issue: 155 November 2022

89 INTERVIEW MILLER / NOVEMBER 2022 access to the ports of Iran, including Bandar Abbas, to deliver our products to the countries of the world. This is- sue is in the range of our interests and will help expand the export potential of our food products. At the moment, the corresponding infrastructure for this route is already functioning on the territory of Iran. Russian investors have built an elevator and a hub for transshipment. All this en- sures the transit of Russian grains through the territory of Azerbaijan and Iran. Another question will be on grain export tax. How this tax has impacted Russian grain export? When do you think this tax will be lifted?  We categorically against such measures. $3 billion have been already accumulated on account of these taxes to the Russian federal budget. That’s all been paid from the farmers’ pockets. This is quite a big amount of money and a loss in the farmers’ revenues. We regularly alert the gov- ernment on this issue. One month ago, we presented a file to President Putin. I think within this current season, the government will put lifting the tax on its agenda. Last February China lifted restrictions on imports of Russian wheat and allowed wheat imports from all regions of Russia. Could you give information about Russia’s wheat export to China? What are Russia’s goals regarding the Chinese market? We adapted to the Chinese demand. Our goal is to dominate the Chinese wheat market in the long term. However, we need a principal decision from the Chinese government but still, there is no such decision. Therefore, we are only supplying the transborder regions with small quantities. The Siberian grain is situated adjacent to the China-Russia border. If China accepts and decides on se- riously Russian grain, that would be a very powerful driver to power up the Siberian wheat production capacity. We currently produce 17-18 million tons of grain annually in Si- beria. But we can easily double that production. Is there anything else you want to add? Competition is the best and proper driver of any devel- opment, especially for a well-diversified grain market. Un- derstanding this situation must lead the world to maximum focus on competitive patterns. However, all the trends now are in favor of protectionism and monopolism of certain sup- ply chain channels. That leads, on the contrary, to dispropor- tions in competitive patterns. And this is putting a spoke in the wheel of the competition. When the world appreciates that competition is quite a powerful drive, they will remove the spoke from the wheel and we will run on the better ways.