Shipping in the Sea of Azov, the route for a quarter of Russia's grain exports, remained restricted on Monday for security reasons following Ukrainian attacks on tankers and other commercial vessels in the area, three industry sources said.
The restrictions to shipping entering and exiting the sea went into force on Friday, Reuters reported, sending Euronext wheat up as much as four per cent to a six-week high. Russian authorities have not formally announced the curbs, the sources said.
One source told Reuters commercial vessels could move freely in the Sea of Azov but could not enter or leave through the Kerch Strait, which links it with the Black Sea, and the Azov-Don channel, a navigable waterway linking the Don River with the Sea of Azov.
Russia's agriculture and transport ministries did not respond to a request for comment.
Grain shipments from Russia, the world's largest wheat exporter, usually decrease in the months ahead of the harvesting campaign.
The Sovecon consultancy forecast that grain exports in July would be about 2.3 million tonnes, compared with 2.7 million in June. In peak exporting months, shipments exceed five million tonnes.
Russia has started harvesting new crops in southern regions but the new grain has not yet arrived in the seaports, and there have been no reports yet about any major disruption to the grains trade because of the restrictions.
Another one of the sources said the issue was expected to be discussed this week at the country's Security Council, chaired by President Vladimir Putin.
A third source said that the traffic through the Sea of Azov was restricted due to security concerns but not fully stopped, as two other sources said.
All three sources, who work in the grains and energy industry, spoke on condition of anonymity. They said the restrictions have so far been communicated verbally and there were no documents confirming them.
Russia's leading grain-producing regions, Rostov and Krasnodar, lie along the Sea of Azov. The country's second-largest port in the Black Sea region is located on the Kerch Strait.
Ukraine attacked 13 Russian vessels in the Sea of Azov on July 10, including 10 tankers.
Many analysts and international organisations have warned about the risks to the global grains trade from the war in Ukraine because the Black Sea is used by both Ukraine and Russia for grain exports, although there have been no major disruptions during the four-and-a-half-year conflict.
(Reporting by Reuters; Editing by Helen Popper)
