Turkey gains most from Russian ban
by Market Insider
Wednesday, 04 Mar. 2015
The volume of fruit and vegetables imported by Russia fell by 6% in 2014 compared with the year before to approximately 8m tonnes; many exporting countries have profited from the Russian embargo, not least Turkey.
Statistics revealed that since the introduction of the embargo on agricultural products from G7 countries in August, imports into Russia dropped by 20% and the country that benefited most from the ban was Turkey, with volumes to Russia during the August-to-December period growing by a quarter to almost 140.000 tonnes; Turkish soft fruit, grapes, lemons, oranges and cucumbers all reportedly recorded increases.
Other countries that saw significant exports growth to Russia were Argentina (68%), Belarus (35%), China (10%), Macedonia (228%), Serbia (36%) and Ukraine (38%). China's increase mainly came from pears, with tomatoes and apples remaining stable; meanwhile Belarus saw growth in exports of apples, tomatoes, pears, carrots and cabbage.
For certain items, alternative sources have been unable to make up the shortfall. Between August and December, apple imports by Russia totalled 250.000 tonnes, down from the 450.000 tonnes imported over the previous year. For the same period, tomato imports fell from 274.000 tonnes in 2013 to 194.000 last year, while pear volumes dropped from 154.000 to 95.000 tonnes.
In total, imports of fresh fruit and vegetables in Russia during the second half of 2014 decreased by 20% compared with the year-earlier period, a drop of 600.000 tonnes. Fruit accounted for the bulk of the missing volumes at 440.000 tons and vegetables recorded a 160.000 tons drop.
Source: Fruitnet