Effects for North America on Russian ban

Apple and pear exporters from United States will be hit hard, inform s Mark Powers, vice president of the Northwest Horticultural Council of Yakima. It is a very bad timing just before the harvest. An amount of 30% of Washington fruit like: apples, pears and cherries goes annually for export and it was growing.

"Last year Russia was our third market for pears with an export of almost 550,000 boxes, at a value of 11 million dollar," says Jeff Correa. Yakima grows 13% of the total pear harvest of Northwest. This year the harvest is expected to achieve 19 million boxes.

Russia doesn't belong to the top 10 destinations for apples, but last year there were more than 598,000 boxes exported to the Russian market. Mexico is the biggest buyer of American apples.

Exporters are now looking for other markets. It seems to be complicated with Europeans having a big harvest of top fruit themselves. "Therefore Europeans will look for new markets in Middle East, SouthEast-Asia and Brasil," said Correa.