The USA, the EU, Great Britain, Australia, Canada and Japan have already imposed sanctions against Russia. They are aimed primarily at the Russian financial system and the country's political elites. The measures also affect fruit exporters in the DACH region.
South Tyrol: export ban cannot be ruled out
South Tyrolean apple growers in particular are looking eastward with concern. Since the sanctions in 2014, Poland has also been banned from supplying its apples to Russia, which means they are coming onto the European market at prices that South Tyrol's farmers cannot compete with. This could now be enlarged, says South Tyrol's Farmers' Union chairman Leo Tiefenthaler to Rai Südtirol.
Styria: "Some apple varieties become partly unsaleable"
Because major apple producer Poland no longer supplies its fruit to Russia due to the sanctions already in place, cheaper Polish apples are coming onto the European market. And the domestic apple growers cannot keep up with the prices. According to ORF Styria, Styrian apple growers are worried about a really threatening situation.
"The consequences are that certain apple varieties are partly unsaleable - and because of this Ukraine crisis, the prospect of the situation easing is a long way off," said Bernhard Ramminger of the Styrian Fruit Producers' Association, based in Kirchberg an der Raab, about the Russian sanctions (so far) at the start of the week. If the markets don't calm down, the situation could become dramatic for numerous farms, says Ramminger: "The farms may also stop in the next few years - I estimate it will affect about 20 percent of the farms."
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