It's been 7 years since Russia vetoed imports of EU fruits and vegetables in response to the sanctions that the European Commission imposed on that country for their role in the conflict with Ukraine. This veto is still active and has deprived the Spanish fruit and vegetable export sector of its main non-EU market. No other third country has been able to absorb the more than 200,000 tons that Spain exported to Russia.
In 2013, before the veto, Spain directly exported 230,729 tons of fruits and vegetables to Russia, covering a wide range of products, but the actual volume was considered much higher given the heavy-weight of re-exports from other Member States such as France, the Netherlands, and Poland. 161,356 tons of the volume exported by Spain to Russia in 2013 corresponded to fruits. Stone fruits stood out with 35,250 tons of peaches and 29,525 tons of nectarines in direct sales.
Today the Russian market remains closed, at least until December 31, 2021, according to the latest extension of the veto announced by the Russian president in November 2020. The European Commission approved aid in the first years to compensate for the damage to the community fruit and vegetable sector, but these aids did not compensate for the loss of this market. In addition, according to Fepex, no other third-country destination has compensated the Russian market or become an alternative to it. In fact, in the first four months of the year, Spanish exports of fresh fruits and vegetables to non-European countries fell by 22.5% in volume and 24% in value over the same period of 2020, totaling 144,781 tons and 156.6 million euro, according to the latest data updated by the Department of Customs and Special Taxes, which highlights the difficulty for the consolidation of new markets.
Source: fepex.es
