The restriction on Turkish tomato companies exporting products to Russia has been lifted as of May 1st. Even though press reports claimed all the restrictions have been lifted, that is not accurate as the annual aggregate quota is still in place at 50,000 tons.
Before the political crisis between the two countries, Turkish growers used to export 360,000 tons of tomatoes to Russia annually but now that number is limited to 50,000 tons imposed by the Russian government to protect local growers. The exporters in Turkey are pushing to remove this aggregate quota as well.
However the request has not been well received by Russian authorities who stated that during the 4 year ban on Turkish exports including tomatoes, tomato production has increased in Russia by 70 %.
Russian authorities: “Greenhouse production is increasing by 15% in the country. We have made huge investments into tomato production. In 3 years, we will be in a position to satisfy 90% of the local demand and we will not need imported products anymore so there is no need to lift the quota on tomato imports from Turkey. The imported products will drive down the market prices which will hurt local growers. Our growers have invested 1 billion USD in greenhouse tomato production.”
Source: Turk Rus