COFCO Aims to Double Black Sea Grain Purchases Within Three Years

As a part of its global expansion to serve markets beyond China, COFCO International plans to double its grain purchases from the Black Sea region, according to the company’s chairman. In recent years the region has become a leader in global grain markets, with Russia becoming the world’s top wheat exporter, and Ukraine becoming one of the top corn exporters in the world. Furthermore, Russia has the potential to raise its grain exports by another 10 million tons by 2025, including another 6 to 7 million tons of wheat.

In a speech at the FT Commodities Summit, COFCO chairman Jingtao (Johnny) Chi said that the volume of grain purchases from Black Sea countries will double over the coming two-to-three years.

Last year the company traded 106 million tons of commodities. Of this number, 40 million tons were bought from farmers outside of China. By 2022, COFCO aims to lift that number to more than 60 million tons.

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