In St. Petersburg, fruit importers are looking for new partners. The market volume available after the import ban is $0.5 billion. Last week, the first ships with fruit arrived from Africa in St. Petersburg, and in the supermarkets apples from China are already sold. Local companies are looking for partners in exotic countries. The biggest supplier of fruits to Russia is Ecuador, the main exporter of bananas. Last year produce for $927.4 million were delivered from this country in St. Petersburg. The top 10 biggest suppliers also included Spain, Poland and Belgium with a total supply $254.2 million in 2013. Total imports of fruit from Europe and the United States were 2 times more.
“European countries accounted for 80% of seasonal supply, – says Roman Hajiyev, CEO of United Fruit Company SMIT. – For example, a stone fruits were from Spain, Italy, Greece, and apples and pears were from Poland, Germany, Belgium and Holland”.
One of the largest suppliers in St. Petersburg, AyBaRus, imported more than 30% from Europe, the company used to import stone fruits from Spain and Greece. “Immediately after the ban, we switched over to Turkey and Serbia, but we could not full up all the necessary volumes” – says Anton Chenash, sales manager to retail networks from AyBaRus company. United Fruit Company SMIT turns to Serbia, Macedonia, South Africa, Argentina, Chile, India. Retail chain Dixy turns to suppliers from Russia, from Kuban, Krasnodar and Stavropol regions. In Dixy supermarkets now there are peaches and grapes from Turkey and Macedonia.
All these countries have already worked with Russia, but in terms of the supply they were not included even in the top 20 suppliers. So, Israel, Serbia and India in 2013 exported fruits for $20-30 million. To fill the region’s needs in fruits, volumes should increase by 2-3 times.