Russia and Egypt’s main commodity exchanges plan to cooperate more closely with a view to potentially establishing a new grain exchange within the broader BRICS group, the head of Russia’s SPIMEX exchange said late Thursday.
Russia, the world’s biggest wheat exporter, is pushing for the exchange as part of a broader plan to create new financial products, decouple trade from the US dollar and help Russia fight Western sanctions.
“In general, all this can be seen as both Russia-Egypt bilateral relations and the creation of the BRICS exchange,” Igor Artemyev, head of Russia’s SPIMEX exchange, told reporters after signing the memorandum with Egyptian EMX.
Based on this memorandum, both parties plan to simplify exchange trading procedures and explore the possibility of mutual exchange access for brokers and companies from both countries.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said the BRICS countries, which are among the world’s biggest producers of grains, pulses and oilseeds, could establish such an exchange and expand to trade in other major commodities.
The plan to create exchanges was approved by the leaders of the BRICS countries, including Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Egypt and others.
(Reporting by Olga Popova; Writing by Vladimir Soldatkin; Editing by David Goodman)
