A new export grain terminal with annual capacity of 2.4 million metric tons a year will be commissioned Monday at Tuapse, Russia's second largest Black Sea port, the government of the Krasnodar Region said Monday.
The construction of the terminal began in July 2007 and cost RUB1.8 billion (about $60 million).
Russia's First Deputy Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov said earlier the new Tuapse grain export terminal would begin operations in February as part of the government's plan to export 2.5-3 million tons of intervention grain purchased last year so as to free storage capacities for new intervention grain.
Zubkov is reported by the national press to have said Friday that the government had suspended intervention grain purchases, partly because the country's grain storage facilities were overloaded, and a government decree on the export of 2.5-3 million tons of grain was to be expected within days.