Latvia’s government announced plans to impose a tariff of up to staggering 300% on grain arriving from Russia and Belarus, according to the country’s Prime Minister Andris Kulbergs on Monday.
Officials in Latvia and neighboring Lithuania last week said they considered ending shipments of Russian grain through their ports after Moscow stepped up the transits in response to attacks by Ukraine on its Baltic ports.
Russian exporters are moving grain via Latvia, an EU and NATO member, to other markets, analysts and traders have said.
A ban or high tariffs could cut off a key alternative at a time when Black Sea and Azov Sea routes have been paralyzed by Ukrainian drone strikes.
Russia exported 46.3 million metric tons of grain via ports in the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea in the last exporting season covering the period from July 2025 to June this year, which accounted for 90% of total Russian seaborne grain exports, industry data shows.
