BRICS weighs Russia’s grain exchange plan; digital platform for farm produce trade mooted

BRICS members are exploring a plan backed by Russian President Vladimir Putin to establish a grain exchange that could potentially end the “hegemony” of certain commodity exchanges on global agricultural trading and prices. It would be on the agenda at the September 12-13 BRICS Summit in New Delhi.

Russia presented the framework of the BRICS Grain Exchange at a meeting of BRICS trade ministers in Jaipur recently.

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First proposed in 2023

Russia presented the BRICS Grain Exchange framework of at a meeting of bloc’s trade ministers in Jaipur recently, describing it as a “unified digital trading platform where producers and buyers of agricultural crops could deal with one another directly.”

The trade ministers discussed their respective positions on the proposed grain exchange at the Jaipur conference, said people familiar with the meeting. Russia’s Union of Grain Exporters and Producers, which first mooted setting up the exchange in 2023, estimated that trading of agricultural and related products among the BRICS nations could eventually exceed $1 trillion.

Putin backed the initiative in 2024 and said it could eventually evolve into a full-fledged commodity exchange. The exchange will reflect the actual balance of supply and demand within BRICS, enabling member countries to retain control over their own commodity flows, according to Russia.