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Three weeks before the World Grain Forum, to be hosted by the
Agriculture Ministry in the Black Sea resort of Sochi on
November 18-19, its public program looks dominated by local
officials and analysts.
The timing could not be worse. Western power are threatening new
sanctions against Moscow - already punished for its role in the
Ukraine crisis - over Russian air strikes in Syria.
Russia's agriculture Minister Alexander Tkachev might have been
hoping for a rare chance to see his EU counterparts at the forum
as he is banned from entering the bloc.
Few, if any, of them look likely to attend.
German Agriculture Minister Christian Schmidt, for example, will
visit Russia in November but will not attend the forum, a
spokesman for the German Ministry said. Germany will be
represented by specialist experts.
"Because of the tight appointment calendar of a minister it is
naturally the case that not every invitation can be accepted and
not every conference can be visited personally," the spokesman
for the ministry said.
The first World Grain Forum was held in Russia in 2009 on the
initiative of then President Dmitry Medvedev, now Russia's Prime
Minister, after he tabled the idea at a summit of leaders from
the Group of Eight (G8), which has since become the G7 after
Moscow was excluded.
Speakers at that event included government ministers or
officials from Germany, Brazil, Japan, China and Ukraine as well
as a leading official from the EU's executive body, the European
Commission.
The provisional list of speakers this time includes professors
from universities in the United States and Britain.
"It is a pure matter of policy and sanctions. Most major
countries will be represented at the forum, but by experts
(rather than government ministers and top officials). Business
is also coming," said an industry source.
Organizers say they expect to see official delegations from over
50 countries and the agriculture ministry told Reuters it hopes
more countries would confirm their participation in the coming
weeks.
It did not provide the list of delegates but said that business
and official representatives of more than 25 countries had
already confirmed they would attend.
(Reporting by Polina Devitt; additional reporting by Michael
Hogan in Hamburg; editing by Nigel Hunt and William Hardy)
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