In August 2014, Russia slapped a slew of measures on the European Union, the US, Australia, Canada and Norway. It was a response to the EU’s and US’ sanctions, with the list expanded later by other countries. The so-called counter-sanctions ban imports of fruits, vegetables, dairy, and meat products from a number of countries to the Russian Federation.
Representatives of departments and experts have told TASS about changes in the structure of Russia’s agriculture industry and about sectors that have gained traction over the past five years, as well as what goods will be substituted in the future.
According to the data provided by the Agriculture Ministry, Russia’s food imports dropped by 31.2% in the past five years from $43.3 bln in 2013 to $29.8 bln in 2018.
"In 2018, Russian food exports amounted to $25.8 bln in value terms compared with $16.8 bln in 2013. Exports of meat and fat-and-oil products, fish and seafood, processed products demonstrated a notable growth. Russia heads the list of biggest wheat suppliers and is among top three suppliers on separate goods items. The present international trade dynamics suggests that the country will become one of top ten global agriculture exporters in the midterm," the ministry’s representative explained.
Business ombudsman Boris Titov agreed that counter-sanctions have driven agriculture growth, though he noted that finding niches in international division of labor and cooperating with other countries is more important. "I can say that as an economic measure it has triggered certain areas of agriculture development. However, I should add that it is wrong anyway. Open relationship is much more important, so we should openly compete and find our niches in international labor division. It is much more profitable to cooperate than to impose sanctions against each other," he noted.
Of course, the tit-for-tat sanctions only restricted imports from around 30 states, whereas such big suppliers as Brazil, Chile, Argentina and India remained out of the list of blacklisted countries.
Russia’s food embargo has pushed local production up, though import substitution has failed on certain items, Executive Director of the Association of manufacturers and suppliers of food products Rusprodsoyuz Dmitry Vostrikov noted.
