Russia captures 35% of global pea exports as four markets take 98% of shipments
Russia exported 3.9 million tonnes of peas in 2025, accounting for 35% of global exports. China, India, Turkey and Pakistan received 98% of Russian shipments, leaving the trade heavily concentrated among four buyers.
Exports reach 3.9 million tonnes
Russia accounted for 35% of global pea exports in 2025 after shipping 3.9 million tonnes to foreign markets, according to findings by consulting firm Strategy Partners cited by RIA Novosti and reported by Lenta.ru and Finance Rambler. The figures establish Russia as a dominant supplier in the international pea market and show how rapidly the country has converted higher domestic production into export availability.
Exports represented more than two-thirds of Russia’s 5.7 million-tonne pea harvest in 2025. Strategy Partners described both the harvest and the average yield of 26 centners per hectare as records. The result followed a weather-related decline in 2024 and marked a recovery to new highs for Russian growers.
Four buyers take 98% of shipments
China, India, Turkey and Pakistan collectively received 98% of Russian pea exports. The concentration gives exporters access to several of the world’s major pulse-consuming markets, but it also leaves shipments highly dependent on purchasing conditions, regulation and demand in only four destinations. The available data do not provide an individual volume for each buyer.
China is also expanding its purchases of Russian food products more broadly. Lenta.ru reported that the value of Russian food deliveries to China rose by 44% in the first half of 2026 to $4.9 billion. That total includes products beyond peas, such as frozen fish, rapeseed oil and soybeans, but it illustrates the wider commercial channel supporting Russian agricultural sales into the Chinese market. In Turkey, the value of Russian dried-pea shipments reached an almost four-year high in June, according to Lenta.ru.
Area expansion supports larger supply
Russia’s grain-pea planting area expanded by 71% over five years, while the 2025 harvest was more than double the level recorded in 2020. The combination of additional land and a record reported yield explains the sharp increase in exportable supply. It also means that future shipment volumes will depend not only on foreign demand but on whether producers maintain acreage after the 2025 production peak.
Peas form part of a larger Russian grain and pulse export base. Finance Rambler reported that Russia exported 50 million tonnes of grain crops in 2025, while foreign shipments of grain legumes increased to 4.2 million tonnes. Peas therefore represented most of the reported grain-legume export volume. For processors, traders and importers, the central market issue is the imbalance between Russia’s large supply position and its narrow buyer base: changes in access or purchasing by any of the four principal destinations could have an immediate effect on available volumes and trade routes.
