Wheat Trade between Russia and Iran: a Discontinuous Trend

Abstract

The increasing number of security, diplomatic, and political agreements, along with expanded military cooperation, more financial partnerships, and the growth of trade, all indicate a strengthening of relations between the Russian Federation and the Islamic Republic of Iran. This development has been particularly notable since their cooperation in the Syrian civil war in 2015 and especially following Russia's invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022. One dimension of this trend is the export of grain, particularly wheat, from Russia to Iran. However, this aspect of cooperation between the two countries remains volatile and does not show a steadily increasing trend. In this paper, the authors examine Iran's agricultural and food production, its import dependency, and the expanding trade and non-trade relations between Iran and Russia. The authors find that, despite the observed upward trend, wheat imports from Russia will continue to be discontinuous due to the self-sufficiency policies pursued by the Islamic Republic.