Growers from Krasnodar region, South Russia, estimate the loss of 2 billion rubles due to competition with Moldovan apple suppliers until the end of the year. In the end of July, Moldovan suppliers began importing apples and plums to Russia and they are cheaper than Russian ones. Domestic producers turned for help to the Russian Ministry of Agriculture. However, experts believe that the request to ban the import is unlikely to be satisfied.
22 July, Russian Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance (Rosselkhoznadzor) allowed 43 Moldovan companies to export their produce to the Russian market, and the produce is cheaper than the Russian one. As a result, domestic production remains unclaimed. So, the price of a Russian plum fell from 12-14 rubles per 1 kg to 5-7 rubles per 1 kg.
According to the Union officials, over the past two weeks growers only from Krasnodar region lost more than 120 million rubles. And the total losses of fruit growers from Krasnodar region are estimated to be more than 2 billion rubles till the end of the year.
At the same time, growers from Krasnodar region believe that so far they have successfully contributed to import substitution program. For example, according to their data, they have increased domestic production of seedlings of fruit crops by 2.7 times, and fruit production has increased by 45.2% over the past five years.
Rosselkhoznadzor said that it would be impossible to ban the import of Moldovan plums and apples now without any risks of biological kind. In the summer of 2014, Rosselkhoznadzor banned imports of vegetables and fruits from Moldova because they did not match Russian phytosanitary requirements. In mid-2015, the import was renewed on a trial basis, and the number of companies authorized to ship products to the Russian market, is gradually increased. In March 2016, Rosselkhoznadzor temporarily suspended imports of vegetables and fruits with the Moldovan phytosanitary certificates via Belarus to the Russian market because of the suspicion of re-exports of apples and pears from the European Union.
In 2015, Moldova exported to Russia 42,000 MT of apples, according to the Federal Customs Service. The total import of apples to Russia was 890,000 MT. Domestic production was about 600 000 MT in 2015. As for plums, Moldova takes the second place – 13,000 MT, the total import of plums to Russia was 60,000 tons, while Russia produced only 6,000 -7,000 MT.