"With apples being the main product sent to Russia, this will be a major strike to Bosnia's fruit producers. To put it in perspective, out of the 23,000 tons of fruit exported to Russia in 2017, 12,700 tons of that total were apples (worth 9 million euros)," stressed Bojan Kecman from the Ministry of Agriculture-Republic of Srpska.
Mostly likely, apples from the EU were being packed in BiH and then being sent on, labelled as a Bosnian grown product. The most exported apple varieties to Russia from BiH are; Idared, Granny Smith, Gloster, Fuji and Gala.
Besides Russia, BiH exports their apple to Serbia, Macedonia, Montenegro,Slovenia, Croatia and Germany (when there are low supplies).
Kecman said that it was worrying that Russia now doubts that these types of exports were stopped the last time that Russia implemented a ban on the same grounds back in 2016. The previous ban lasted 10 weeks and cost Bosnian producers an estimated €3 million.
No dates have been set for the ban and negotiations with the Russian Phytosanitary Inspection are expected to follow over the next couple of days.
For more information:
Bojan Kecman
Ministry of Agriculture-Republic of Srpska
Tel: +387 65 742 293,
Email: b.kecman@mps.vladars.net
bojankecman@gmail.com